Behind bars, the convicted founder of the infamous and controversial orgasmic meditation company, OneTaste, Nicole Daedone, is again stirring things up, this time by going after hip-hop mogul Sean Diddy Combs, and the justice system; which she insists treats women and men in totally different ways.
Daedone, in an exclusive statement to NBC News, called the outcome of her encounter with the law and that of Combs, outrageous because her conviction points to the fact that society treats female sexuality in a harsher way than it treats male misbehavior.
Daedone felt that Diddy is basically getting off whereas she and Rachel Cherwitz, her co-defendant, who was a high-ranking executive at OneTaste, could end up spending two decades in prison. That ought to give you an idea of what we [society] think of female sexuality.
Last month Daedone and Cherwitz stood trial in a Brooklyn federal court, where they were convicted of conspiracy to commit forced labor. Prosecutors claimed that the two men used and abused followers, many of whom had experienced trauma, into sexual subservience and financial destitution in the name of healing and well-being.
Both females are now held in jail awaiting sentencing in September with up to 20 years of federal prison sentence awaiting them.
A Pleasure or Abuse Business?
In 2004, Daedone founded OneTaste, a women empowerment sexual wellness organization based on a method known as orgasmic meditation. It became a multimillion-dollar company with celebrity investors in such stars as Gwyneth Paltrow and Khlo Kardashian, and at one point it was estimated to be worth more than $12 million.
However, everything went wrong when a 2018 Bloomberg investigation and subsequently, a 2022 Netflix documentary – Orgasm Inc. – painted a very dark picture.
Ex-workers have spoken out about a cult-like atmosphere, in which sexual activity was forced, obligatory, or encouraged, often in order to get investors on board or please customers.
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The federal prosecutors said that Daedone and Cherwitz targeted vulnerable people and that they would use spiritual language and therapeutic rhetoric to deprive the victims of boundaries and consent.
Daedone has refuted these claims early enough and has stood on her innocence.
She said, the case did work at the emotional level, rather than a legal or rational one. This seemed totally rational to me: an autonomous woman who is sexually active is deemed guilty; she can never be innocent in this culture.
Daedone has made her latest statement to which the prosecutors refused to comment.
Daedone vs. Diddy: Two Trials of Two Women
The frustrations that Daedone has are related to a contemporary federal case in Manhattan where Sean Combs aka Diddy was acquitted of serious charges such as sex trafficking and racketeering. The jury found Combs guilty of two lesser offenses of transporting women to work as prostitutes after a seven-week trial.
Although all of the individual charges can be punished by up to 10 years, legal analysts believe that since Combs has no criminal record, and was charged with personal use crimes, he will not serve the maximum sentence, or possibly any sentence, in prison.
In a striking contrast, Daedone and Cherwitz were found guilty of the premeditated systematic program of forced labor through sex acts, which according to the prosecutions team constituted abuse as disguised spiritual healing.
It is this contrast, along with the media focus on each case, that has prompted Daedone to assert that her case is considered part of a larger double standard within the justice system, particularly when it comes to society and its perception of the female idiom of sex and power.
Daedone said, We speak about empowering women, but as soon as women gain actual power over their sexuality, there is punishment, especially when it is not conventional.
The Verdicts Behind the Crimes
In the case of Combs, the prosecutors aired shocking surveillance videos of the music mogul beating singer Cassie Ventura in a hotel corridor in 2016.
They stated that Combs threatened Cassie and a second woman (referred to as Jane in court) through the use of drugs, violence, and intimidation into engaging in sex acts with male escorts, supposedly called by Combs, freak offs.
Although the testimony was lengthy and the evidence graphic, the jury found Combs guilty of the lesser charges of prostitution-related offenses-a ruling that was deemed a victory by Combs counsel.
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In the meantime, Daedone and Cherwitz were claimed to have established a corporate culture in which sex was not only appreciated but mandated.
Victims have given testimonies that they were lured into debt, sex, and devotionhood in the name of being healed of trauma and empowered.
Looking Ahead
The case of Daedone and Cherwitz awaits their sentencing in September, but as it stands now, the debate surrounding the case can only gain more steam in the wake of the Combs verdict. The important social media has been divided, some say that the justice system is hypocritical, others that both convictions were correct referring to the evidence presented.
In any case, Daedone states that she does not want to remain silent.
She said, this is not solely about me. It is about the way we in our culture treat women that do not fit in nice boxes.
The two women are still in federal custody. It remains to be told whether her sentencing will prove her to be right or vindicate her.
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