Coffee-shop owners outed for 'misogynistic' podcast about sexual conquests

Tonya Maxwell | The Citizen-Times

ASHEVILLE, N.C. — Owners of a coffee company in North Carolina have apologized and will be donating proceeds to a rape crisis organization after it was revealed that they wrote and ran a podcast graphically divulging tales of their sexual conquests within the community.

Jared Rutledge and Jacob Owens, owners of Waking Life Espresso of West Asheville, N.C., have issued apologies for the podcast and website that critics say is a misogynistic affront to women in the community, according to the Citizen-Times.

In response to the blog posts and anonymous social media accounts, local businesses began removing Waking Life products from their stores and West Asheville residents staged protests outside of the business.

Rutledge has taken responsibility for a now-removed but archived Twitter account and blog that described detailed, often degrading, sexual encounters with dozens of women, many of whom he said he met in his business.

The posts detail the intimate encounters and body types of women, but they also mention the "red pill," a slang term related to an online philosophy that champions sexual conquest as "game," with "winning" strategy relying on dominance by an alpha male.

"Men's problem is finding attractive, valuable women who will submit," one blog post reads. "It could be an issue of the small town in which I live, but the pickings are slim. Women don't seem to have that problem — their problem is finding dominant, valuable men who will commit."

In West Asheville, a community that prides itself for supporting local business, the revelations were viewed as an affront, made clear with boisterous — and quieter — protests against Waking Life.

The West Village Market & Deli pulled iced coffee bottled by Waking Life from its shelves Sunday morning, said manager Nicki Lizotte, saying the posts, while not illegal, were immoral and hurtful to women and the larger community.

Rather than throw out the bottles, Lizotte said she gave them to nearby Orbit DVD, where workers said they cleared their own stock of the product by channeling the community's outrage into a positive outlet.

For each $4 bottle the store sells, it will donate $50 to Our Voice, a rape crisis organization, Orbit manager Kayla Bott said.

"These are literally the women of the community that we live with," she said. "These are our friends. These are our loved ones. These are our neighbors. There are mothers. We are taking this situation personally, and we are supportive of the women of the community."

The postings by Rutledge and Owens appear to have been first made public by an anonymous blog poster about a month ago, but gained widespread criticism in recent days as the information was posted on Facebook.

An example of one of the blog's typical entries reads, "Early twenties friend of one of my employees, (the dating site) Tinder provided the introduction. Radical feminist on the outside, radical submissive in the bedroom. Loved being abused and dominated."

In his online apology for posts made under accounts titled "Holistic Game," Rutledge asked for forgiveness for violating the trust of women involved in intimate encounters, saying he sometimes vented in a hateful and foolish way under the cloak of anonymity.

"I grew up in West Asheville and have disappointed and brought shame to the community that raised me, and there's not really anything I can do to make it right," he wrote. "There are no excuses to be made. The way I've phrased and framed my private conduct in a sad and tawdry public way is humiliating."

Owens also offered an online mea culpa, stressing that he was not responsible for blog or twitter posts, but was aware of their existence and general content. He and Rutledge together produced the podcast.

"Under a disguise that I thought would be anonymous, without the accountability that good friends hold you too, this persona that I am fully responsible for developed into a chauvinist and a misogynist," Owens wrote. "I love women. I value them. In my experiences with them they have taught me of kindness, grace, and compassion. Many of my words in the podcast do not reflect that."