Orgasm Inc.: The Story of OneTaste

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.

This documentary about Nicole Daedon and her OneTaste Company is interesting but completely misses the mark on its attempt to portray Daedon as a scammer and con artist. While there is clearly a cultish aspect of the personality and the work of Daedon it is not veiled. She is person that promotes female sexual empowerment and enlightenment through female orgasm. She also charges a lot of money for her programs. So what? The people that joined did so of their free will and were free to leave any time. Furthermore, it seems that the program was transparent in its focus on sexuality as a vehicle for self awareness. People's buyer's remorse or embarrassment over paying upwards of $30,000 doesn't;t make this a story of corruption or fraud. I thought the story is interesting but I felt like the documentarian was trying to manipulate the story.

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 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.

What happened here? A compelling story about a sex cult that teaches women and men about increasing orgasmic pleasure goes soft when it comes time to deliver. Even from a technical standpoint the film is poorly executed and rife with cliches. I feel for the people who were victims of Onetaste but the majority of the film actually celebrates the cult instead of exposing the predatory nature of the leader Nicole and her close followers. The extremely cliche b-roll shots of people laying in bed "thinking" and staring out a window with tears welling up are almost comical at times. With that said, it's interesting enough to learn that something like this existed and thrived with celebrities and the tech elite of Silicon Valley. Give it a watch if you are looking for some cheap entertainment (or to listen to in the background). HOWEVER.... what you won't find here is the savvy documentary style that Netflix has nailed so many times before. Shame.