Women’s empowerment branding belied focus on men at ‘sex cult,’ trial witnesses say

Brooklyn — The contradictory nature of a Bay Area company that sold ritualized sex acts as a form of meditation was on full display Wednesday as a trial continued to unfold against two former leaders of the organization.

Nicole Daedone, the 57-year-old founder of OneTaste, and 44-year-old Rachel Cherwitz, its former head of sales, each face one count of forced labor conspiracy and are accused of using manipulative and abusive tactics to get employees who lived in communal, closely surveilled housing to do menial and sexual labor for little to no pay. They face up to 20 years in prison if convicted.

OneTaste’s core product was “orgasmic meditation” or OM, pronounced like the sacred sound and spiritual symbol commonly invoked in yoga and meditation. Despite the branding, “OMing” is a far cry from those ancient practices; instead, it’s a 15-minute partnered practice that involves stroking a woman’s genitals.

Daedone and her followers claim the activity leads to deeper connection and empowers women. Defense lawyers characterized the OneTaste community as a sexually liberated environment. Witnesses have labeled it a strictly managed sex cult and said Daedone prioritized sexually servicing wealthy men.

Women working at OneTaste were instructed to participate in “OMing” as well as “male OMing,” which one trial witness explained is essentially a hand job, with men they’d never met — especially high-paying clients to whom OneTaste leaders wanted to sell additional sexual experiences — according to court testimony.

“It was the expectation that I would be open to OMing with anybody off the street,” a former sales employee testified last week. In order to say no, “I had to have a really good reason.”

The contradiction took center stage on Wednesday when testimony raised themes like queer identities and participation in sex work.

Jennifer Bonjean, who represents Daedone, asked a witness named Dana about testimony that she paid for OneTaste courses with money from sex work that a friend in the organization helped her arrange.

Bonjean drew a sharp contrast between sex work and OMing. Then, when cross-examining Dana, whose full name is being withheld, about direct testimony that she was mocked for being in a lesbian relationship, Bonjean pointed out that women would “OM” with each other.

If the goal was to fend off the notion that same-sex relationships were treated with the same respect as sex between a man and a woman, it fell flat; Dana replied, “It was not encouraged until you were well-developed in your OM practice.” In other words, women had to let men stroke them first.

A second witness on Wednesday, Max, testified that the culture at OneTaste, including pressure surrounding gender expression, made them feel boxed in.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Kayla Bensing showed Max, who uses they/them pronouns, a photo of them at a 2013 OneTaste Halloween party, sporting closely cropped hair. It was two months before Max left OneTaste, and they were in the process of realizing they’d had enough and chopped off their hair in the bathroom in the middle of the night, they testified.

“There was a way we were supposed to look … and I was rebelling against that,” Max said. “I didn’t want to be this female object anymore. I wanted to look in the mirror and feel like myself.”

Max was 22 when they got involved with OneTaste in 2012. They echoed previous witnesses in describing how they lost their sense of self while at OneTaste and had a difficult time finding it once they left the group.

“There was a slow whittling down of who I was and how I saw the world,” Max said. “It’s taken me a lot of time to feel right with myself.”

Cross-examination began toward the end of the day and will continue Thursday.

Earlier Wednesday, Bonjean’s aggressive cross-examination earned a warning from the judge as she questioned Dana on her testimony that she’d started seeing a therapist after she went through a traumatic miscarriage that led to nightmares and an inability to get out of bed.

“You don’t blame Nicole Daedone for your miscarriage, too, do you?” Bonjean asked, followed by a sustained objection from the government.

“Be careful, Ms. Bonjean,” U.S. District Judge Diane Gujarati said shortly afterward.