Plushophilia is a sexual fetish involving stuffed animals. Plushophiles are sometimes called ‘plushies,’ although this term can also refer to non-sexual stuffed animal enthusiasts, and to stuffed animals in general. Plushophilia is sometimes assumed to be a practice common within furry fandom (a subculture revolving around animal anthropomorphism), due in part to a 2001 ‘Vanity Fair’ article that linked various members of the furry community with plushophilia.
Pornography and sexual activity involving animal anthropomorphism is known in the furry fandom community as ‘yiff’ (and sexual acts as ‘yiffing’). Sexual arousal that depends upon imagining one’s self as plush or anthropomorphized animal is ‘autoplushophilia.’ Paraphilic interests that involve being in another form have been referred to as Erotic target location errors, a term coined in 1993 by sexologist Ray Blanchard, referring to having a sexual preference in features that are somewhere other than on one’s sexual partner.
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