Feminique Botique

Jill McDevitt, owner of Feminique, announced plans to close her shop on Nov. 10 after having several issues with the Borough of West Chester over the past five and a half years.
McDevitt made the announcement on her blog on Nov. 4. She had plans to close the store at the end of the month or when all of the contents of the store were sold. She is having a liquidation sale, including merchandise and fixtures such as shelving and mannequins. Because the sale went so well, McDevitt announced on Nov. 7 that she would instead close her doors on Nov. 10. Her store, located at 104 N. Church St., has been free of offensive porn and primarily supplied erotic items, games, books, and lingerie.
McDevitt holds a bachelor’s degree in sexuality, marriage, and family, a master’s degree in human sexuality education, and a doctorate in human sexuality. Her store is the only sex shop in the country to be owned by a degreed sexologist.
McDevitt decided this was ultimately the right decision. “I’ve been building two companies. It’s been this physical retailing location and it’s also been my speaking and my expert in sexologist brand,” she said. McDevitt said that her dream was never to own a sex toy shop. In her book, Fighting the Crusade Against Sex, she wrote, “I wanted more than anything to be a sexuality educator. I dreamed of someday traveling the country on speaking tours, giving seminars and motivational speeches on sexual empowerment at colleges, conferences, and other venues.”
McDevitt has managed to do just that. McDevitt does more than 100 paid speaking engagements across the country every year and wanted to keep Feminique in business only as long as it deemed productive.
“When I have so many problems with the Borough, and the needling, and the lawsuits, and the litigation, and restrictions on how I can operate, I’m kind of like…It’s not worth it, especially when this other career is not only much more lucrative, but allows me to reach many more people,” she said.
McDevitt has undergone a continuous struggle with the Borough of West Chester since before her business was even in place. West Chester’s borough zoning code did not include where businesses of sexually oriented centers could be located. She was able to set up her business but it came with a lot of harassment and restrictions.
Residents’ concerns were brought up at Borough Council meetings time after time. In addition, St. Agnes Roman Catholic Church on West Gay Street objected to the opening of the store so close to their school.
There was also controversy surrounding the image on the Feminique wooden sign outside of the store. There is a heart shape positioned on the outline of a woman’s body. Residents found the sign to be too erotic for their taste. There was also much argument whether the sign fit the borough’s historical and architectural vision for the town of West Chester.
McDevitt wrote passionately about her exhaustion on her blog. She wrote that she felt she was spending thousands of dollars just to have a conversation. She wanted to draw attention to her cause and her mission.
Many of the shelves and walls of the store were bare this past week, but many customers wished McDevitt good luck. McDevitt is very interactive. She writes and posts normally more than once a day often on her blog: sexologist.tumblr.com. McDevitt offers classes, and holds parties for people interested in learning more about human sexuality.
McDevitt spoke highly of her fans. She said she has thousands of people who have spent money at the store and disclosed very personal things about their lives. Since the opening of the store, Jill has made several friends, and has given advice to many customers.
However, McDevitt does not have plans to open another store. She will still sell all the products on her website, and after her presentations.
“I still have the products. It’s not like I’m not in retail, so I don’t really feel the need to open another store when I already have a way to market those products without the overhead,” she said.
Her store has been served as a platform for her larger goals. “I’m not sad. I’m proud of what I’ve done with Feminique, and even though this is a scary moment and a massive life change for me, I’m proud that I’m smart enough to see that it’s time to let go.”
Elizabeth Coppa is a fourth year communication studies major with a minor in journalism. She can be contacted at EC744351@wcupa.edu.