Orgasmos à Venda: O Lado Sombrio da OneTaste

I was in OneTaste and it absolutely messed me up. People who harassed and violated me were welcomed in the community without even a pause. We were encouraged to always be friends and "stay connected". Imagine being told that after someones literally violated you. I heard of it happening often within the community. The leader cares more about money and herself than anything else and publicly condoned this behavior. It took me a lot of therapy to start having healthy relationships after I left. And yet, she still has a strong following. I think this is an important doc for anyone who'd like to be aware of cults, cult leaders and those in the sex positive space in general.

One conclusion. Nicole Daedone is a villain. 'Orgasm Inc: The Story of OneTaste' only amplifies and retells the same old story. Anecdotes and details of events from victims' perspectives are surely important, but all things end there so soon rather than elaborating on the systematic strategies OneTaste used for luring the members in and locking them in. At the end, even though I feel really horrible to say this, I feel as if victims had their chances to get out. Traumatic stories former members tell scar me deeply, and I really feel for them. Then, there is nothing that this documentary can offer to wash it all, such as a solution or resolution. Those horrible stories are all there are to be left.

Ah, this is yet another addition to the list of documentaries that highlight the ugly side of consumerist America and a cult that tries to capitalize on something that easily sells - SEX. The interviews focus on people who worked for and with Nicole Daedone, the founder and cult-like leader of OneTaste, a company that wanted to improve sexual wellness (especially, for women). The piece swerves between the fantastic yet dangerously coercive nature of Daedone and folks who've had to undergo multiple levels of bodily and psychological trauma as a result of being part of her "closely knit" team. The upper management apparently was in full favor of letting your inner beast loose in the act of sex, which enabled and condoned predatorial behavior.

What begins as a gleefully progressive way of giving women better orgasms, slowly evolves into something exploitative and traumatic. It comes as no surprise, as listening to Daedone speaking about rape and child molestation for a couple of minutes is sufficient for you to go WTF! To think such a company made millions of dollars over the years of its existence is a typical "American" thing to believe. OneTaste seems like another company that's targeting people's weaknesses, making you feel bad for everything you've been through in life (sexually or otherwise), and then asking you to pay big amounts on courses that are supposed to make everything better.

It's quite similar to a ponzi scheme; the difference being that you're exposing your mind, body, and financial status to possible harm. While much of the documentary revolves around the (mal)practices within the company and several interview snippets of Daedone's, the most impactful story comes at the end when a former employee speaks out, using her sister as a mouthpiece. Does it shock you that there are currently no ongoing litigations against Daedone or her company? Naah.

I have seen quite a few documentaries on cults and most of them, if not all, involve people that are in search of something, they feel they are an outsider for whatever reasons.

They also involve a main character who is usually a predator of some type. I wish they would have had more information on the background of Nicole Daedone to get a better idea of her motivation to take advantage of "needy" people.

Some of her victims, usually women, are so fragile and needy that they are very easy to lead astray, others take some time. The get lied to and buttered up and told they are loved and it totally messed them up mentally.

Another thing they have in common is the leader ,aka head predator, usually gets away with it!

I really hope all of these people can recover.

This documentary did a good job of exposing a wolf in sheep's clothing, One Taste founder, Nicole Daedone. However, like with many "cult" documentaries that are in vogue, it ends with lazy tabloid "this could happen to anyone" scaremongering instead of doing the investigative journalism to expose the common threads that left the victims they interviewed more susceptible to falling prey to this type of brainwashing. In this case, the documentary could have explored our dismal sex education for women in particular, our cultural shaming of female sexuality, our epidemic of child sexual abuse in all sexes, and our failure to teach both trauma recovery and critical thinking skills. Some friends and I attended an introductory One Taste lecture describing the "Om" meditation in the late 2000's and because I had expert knowledge of my sexual response from a young age from women's health books and had training in critical thinking skills, I immediately recognized the cult tactics of groupthink and gaslighting--and I saw the glazed look in the women's eyes who were devotees. It was truly creepy.

Documentaries on cults should examine how our culture at large grooms people to be vulnerable. But every time we try to have that conversation, it's seen as "victim blaming" rather than what it really is...empowering to avoid victimization. Documentaries like this have a responsibility to look at the bigger picture, instead of just creating more fear about how any of us could be next which, in my experience, is not true.