Orgasmique: Le business OneTaste

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.