Orgasmos à Venda: O Lado Sombrio da OneTaste

Having done some research on this topic, one of the major misses with this documentary is the fact that it combines the history of Morehouse "Do-ing" timeline, experiences and terminology with One Taste and "OM-ing".

It's a huge miss in my humble opinion because it highlights how the producers did not either A: Understand the concepts or timelines being discussed here and/or B: Did not care to properly portray data collected.

The lawsuit by previous students citing breach in data used by the producers, coupled with the misappropriation of facts, produced a heavily biased documentary that clearly lacked journalistic integrity.

With such a slanted perspective, what could have been educational and expansive into the realm of such a taboo topics of sexual exploration and spirituality instead felt scandalous, salacious, and overly exaggerated.

On the flipside, reading between the lines of dramatized scenes and interviews, there is a theme that many interviewed for this documentary expressed that the principles of this organization appeared to offer more intimacy, more connection, more vulnerability, and hitting on basic needs we have as a society.

It was also very interesting to see former students and reporter Ellen Huet speak on the positives available in this realm, whether that was intentional or just my perceived perspective.

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.

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.

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.

As with many Netflix documentaries of late, the biggest flaw with this one is creating it too early. There are no conclusions at the end, no satisfying ending, simply "this is still ongoing." At least with The Tinder Swindler, the guy becomes destitute (although not for long before he's at it again) but at least it was something.

They do a good job in describing how the woman who created it ended up taking ideas from L Ron Hubbard and other people who created successful cults - I think the biggest difference is she after more than money; she was the epitome of "blame the victim" when it came to sex.

The line I found the most interesting (paraphrasing): "I don't know why people always say if women ran the world everything would be great, just look at OneTaste."