Furries and Plushophiles

Weblog entries dealing with furry fandom and plushophile fetishism.

VANITY FAIR ARTICLE

Vanity Fair ran a piece last spring about the subculture of furries, "the thousands of Americans who've gotten in touch with their inner raccoon, or wolf, or fox." Vanity Fair doesn't put articles on the Internet, but a furry fan site has reprinted the piece. Furry fans hated this article for its condescending tone and focus on sexual fetishes. The article looks at three phenomena without really drawing distinctions: "furries," who cultivate animal alter egos, often with elaborate costumes, and who have their own well-organized subculture and annual "cons"; "plushophiles," who have a strong attraction to stuffed animals; and "crush videos," which depict live animals being stomped to death, often by women in high heels. There's much overlap between the furry and plushie subcultures (though some touchy furries consider their fandom completely non-sexual and resent the association), but there's virtually no connection between those groups and crush video fetishists.
Vanity Fair (Feb 2001; via Pressed Fur)

A few days before Vanity Fair hit newsstands with its "furries and plushies" article, gossip columnist Liz Smith previewed the piece, which she called "one of the most astounding, irritating and disturbing things I've ever read about weirdo adults." Liz Smith must have lead a very sheltered life.
Planet Out (Feb 2001)

Jim Doolittle, who helped organize the furry convention written up in Vanity Fair, calls the published article by George Gurley "frankly disgusting."
Furdom (Feb 2001)

At Flayrah, Feren discusses the notorious Vanity Fair article and "what it means for furry fandom." Several reader responses follow the article.
Flayrah (Feb 2001)

Chuck Shepherd quoted weird tidbits from the Vanity Fair article on his News of the Weird site. The following week, Shepherd printed a long letter from reader Gary Akins criticizing the Vanity Fair article and defending furry fandom.
News of the Weird (Mar 2001)

At Pitch Weekly (Kansas City alt weekly), Joe Miller profiles the local furry subculture and tags along at Howl, Growl and Purr, an annual meeting of furries at a Missouri campground.
Pitch Weekly (Jul 2001)

Nice National Public Radio feature story on furries and their conventions.
NPR (via Bloosheep)

Naomi Darvell explores the proliferation of furry fantasies and human/animal sex in movies, art, fiction and myth.
Clean Sheets (Aug 2001)

Julene Snyder explores furry fandom through its websites, MUCKs, zines and conventions. Describing the scene at FurryMUCK: "Almost anything goes at the Leash and Collar. There are viewing galleries, an exhibition room, and discreet servants who circulate offering drinks. The lighting is dim and red. The air is thick with a palpable sense of charged eroticism. There's also a certain amount of purring, nipping, nuzzling, and licking. Two tigers are pouncing on one another with tails flicking and sharp teeth gleaming. A winged horse invites any and all to cuddle up to his bulk. The male tiger laps his rough tongue down the spine of the female, licking her all the way to the base of her tail. He rhapsodizes about her scent, tells her that she has a musk that fills the room. She blushes under her fur as he pounces on her yet again."
San Francisco Bay Guardian (Aug 1998)

Lore Fitzgerald Sjöberg takes a humorous look at the furry subculture and the sectarian divisions therein.
Brunching Shuttlecocks

At British lads magazine Loaded, Bill Borrows visits "Confurence 9" and takes a derisive look at furry fandom and its many subfandoms. "The furry world known as furry fandom, is a broad church. There is a more conventional old guard that split off from science fiction conventions and became absorbed in on-line role-playing games ('mucking') and went from there into the Internet, the line of communication which unites these disparate people. And then there is the manga-derived sexually explicit art that serves as a reference point for the more extreme furries, including the 'plushophiles', who have sexual intercourse with stuffed toys, the 'fursuits', who have sex with each other while dressed as animals ('yiffing') and, of course, the 'zoophiles' (who are not to be mistaken for the Friends of Whipsnade or any similar groups)."
Loaded (via Faradawn)

Orlando Weekly columnist Liz Langley discovers the culture of furries and plushies. A rather shallow piece filled with lame, obvious comic riffs, based entirely on seeing an MTV segment and then browsing FoxWolfie Galen's Plushie Page, redeemed by one very funny comment: "We can't help thinking that Orlando must be an absolute mecca for such activity, as it probably has the highest concentration of fursuit-wearing jobs of any city on the planet."
Orlando Weekly (Feb 2002)

FANDOM

Lots of plushie information and links at the web home of alt.sex.plushies and FoxWolfie Galen's Plushie Page.

Vexen Crabtree presents a good, personal overview of the furry subculture, with sections on furry art, furry lifestylers, furry philosophies and more.
Vexen