Nicole Daedone founded OneTaste to champion orgasmic meditation and female pleasure.
The act itself has seemingly taken off in the bedroom and has become a go-to way for couples to reset their sex lives and intensify their bond.
"It is more about the connection, the vulnerability, the letting go," Marla Renee Stewart, MA, and sexpert for Lovers previously told My Imperfect Life. "It's a meditation that's geared towards shifting your spirituality and your sexuality together. You're doing breath work, you're being present, you're moving your body in a rhythmic way."
But when it comes to the company—which rebranded to The Institute of OM since its founding in the early 2000s—things haven't been so satisfying.
"It went from utopia to a hellhole," we hear in the teaser for Orgasm Inc.: The Story of OneTaste, the latest true crime on Netflix. Here's what you need to know about the company's history and the backlash against the new documentary.
All about OneTaste
Given that satisfaction has become an integral part of wellness routines, it'd seem like the trendy OneTaste would be a hit with clients, and for awhile, it was. The company began expanding across the globe, and people were willingly paying the exorbitant membership fee ($50,000+). Its passion for the 15-minute female orgasm even got the attention of A-listers.
"What is it about OneTaste that people are drawn to," a voice asks in the documentary teaser. "Love, connection, belonging—who wouldn't want those things?"
A 2018 investigative piece in Bloomberg proved that things had taken a turn, as allegations of sex trafficking, prostitution and violations of labor law erupted against OneTaste from four former members. Despite the thousands of people who had attended the company's events, workshops and in-person instruction, OM had then been labeled as toxic and abusive under Daedone's leadership.
According to Newsweek, a former employee filed a sexual abuse and fraud lawsuit against the company that same year, however, a judge dismissed the case in 2019. Currently, an FBI investigation into the company is ongoing.
Though Daedone sold her stake in OneTaste and eluded media attention, she brought a libel case against the BBC in 2020 over a series of podcasts about OneTaste, Newsweek further reports. Now, she is also standing by her business in the wake of the investigations.
A lawsuit against 'Orgasm Inc.: The Story of OneTaste'
According to People, roughly a dozen people previously and currently involved with the company attempted to stop the release of Netflix's documentary, Orgasm Inc.: The Story of OneTaste.
"From my clients' perspective, one of the biggest problems is that they don't know whether or not they are in the documentary," the group's lawyer, Paul Nicholas Boylan, told People. "They filed their lawsuit to encourage Netflix to tell them."
A judge denied the request to stop the film from streaming, and director Sarah Gibson insisted all footage had been obtained legally.
"No one's rights have been violated by the footage we used," Gibson told Tudum. "When there was more sensitive footage included, we used it sparingly and took immense care and responsibility to edit and crop as to not exploit or sensationalize it."
Orgasm Inc.: The Story of OneTaste is available for streaming on Netflix as of November 5.
