Profits for sex shop as closing nears

WEST CHESTER A West Chester sex-shop owner has sold thousands of dollars in inventory after declaring she could no longer operate in a "prissy, uptight one-horse town" and would close up shop.

Jill McDevitt, a sexologist and owner of Feminique, said shoppers bearing condolences had flooded the store since she announced Monday that it was closing soon. Others, though, have accused McDevitt of being too provocative.

She says that was the point.

"Maybe that's why it didn't work out," she said. "I didn't want to run this business to run a retail store. I didn't get a Ph.D. to run a retail store. I got a Ph.D. because I have something to say about women's sexuality, and this is the venue I chose for it."

Feminique opened in 2008. McDevitt says some town officials and residents have given her grief over everything from her sign (the outline of a female body with a heart over the pelvic region) to her window displays (which once included a product called "Doggie Style Harness").

Town officials say that isn't the case and contend McDevitt has been challenging an ordinance she agreed to that stipulated the packaging on her products would be discreet and not depict various body parts or sexual acts involving those body parts.

Borough Manager Ernie McNeely said McDevitt was given just one zoning violation in five years.

"She kept pushing the envelope way beyond what she had agreed to in the first place," Mayor Carolyn Comitta said. "And so this has nothing to do with being archaic or out of touch."

McDevitt said she planned to close her shop at the end of the month but now expects her inventory will last only a few more days.

- Tricia L. Nadolny