Plushies and Furries

Plushies and Furries is a short documentary film by Rick Castro produced in 2001, which aired as an episode of Sex2K/True Life on MTV in January 2002, and on Channel 5 UK in the summer of 2003. It "has screened at the American Cinemathéque, Outfest Los Angeles, Frameline San Francisco, the MIX Festival--NYC, the Milan Film Festival, the Montreal Gay Film Festival, the Seattle Gay Film Festival, and the Mardi Gras Film Festival in Sydney". Plushies and Furries was in the 2001 the Montreal International Queer Film and Video Festival; an article in The Gazette mentions it as "Rick Castro's doc about people who love the static of rubbing against other people in adorable fuzzy animal costumes."

Plushies and Furries mainly followed a furry named Mike Yote through Midwest Furfest, and his relationship with his mother. Topics included fursuit sex and furry sexual jargon. Overall the episode was a sex-based portrayal of the furry subculture that some argue is unfavorable, following quickly on the heels of Vanity Fair's article earlier in the year.

The documentary as-aired on MTV in the USA was a censored 20-minute long presentation that lacked any overt pornographic material. The subsequent rebroadcast in the UK in 2003 was uncensored, 45 minutes long and featured extra material following other characters besides Yote, including interviews with furry artists. Rick Castro sometimes features this uncensored version at various Film Festivals.

Controversy
According to Yote, the entire thing was faked and his mother already knew about his interest in fursuiting and furry fandom. The scenes were shot a couple years before the Vanity Fair article came out. "It was all faked and made up by pyewacket &#91;Rick Castro&#93; so that he could have drama and a story," Yote wrote on a fursuit mailing list in 2002.

According to Rick Castro, Yote was well aware of where the interview was going as was his mother. Reportedly, they had to sign releases beforehand and therefore would have known the outcome. There was nothing made up about the questions and answers. The only thing that was created was the time of events. This was done to facilitate organizing a shooting schedule. The Costume Mike Yote wore and featured through the film was purchased online through eBay from a fursuiter and fellow fursuit maker and costumer from Central NY with the Nick name Werwolf. He never knew of the intent to buy his costume and then exploit the sexual side of Furries. The Costume appeared in public 2 years prior to the show at Anthrocon 1998 and 1999 worn with anatomical features exposed starting the new rules of wearing shorts over male suits.

Many of furs that participated in the side interviews were told their interviews would be used for a much different type of show, and the artists were similarly lied to by Rick Castro, the producer. For example, Michael Higgs was told his art was going to be used in a special about up-and-coming comic artists.

Rick Castro attended several furry conventions in the two or three years prior to the first airing of this episode, and professed to be "a furry working on a personal project." In fact, Rick Castro is a professional filmmaker, producer of documentaries involving the porn industry, and a professional fetish photographer as evidenced by his adults-only website at RickCastro.com.

Trademark issue
In the episode Plushies and Furries, a title screen between scenes was added to Rick Castro's original footage that said, "Yote attends his first confurence." This used the registered service mark "ConFurence" in the context of a generic term for a furry-themed convention (in this case, referring to Midwest Fur Fest), and was not referring to the convention hosted annually by The ConFurence Group for which the service mark was registered. Darrel Exline, owner of The ConFurence Group traded multiple letters with MTV Networks' legal department over their improper use of the registered service mark but was unable to resolve the issue without starting expensive litigation.

Quotes
Text appearing on the screen: In the 80's a subculture was born. ... There are plushophiles, people who get turned on by stuffed animals. There are fursuiters, people who get turned on by dressing as big stuffed animals. There are confurences, events where thousands of plushies and furries come together anonymously.

"Ken": Part of the furry [fandom] I really think is sexual attraction. And anyone who says that furry is not a sexual-based fandom is really kind of fooling themselves.

Yote: He's got a lot of fursuits, so we had a lot of fun trying them on. And while I was in it, my friend got a little bit yiffy, and got a little bit up, and I got aroused, but didn't climax or anything. He did though, I'm sure, because he was a little more boisterous in his movements against me.

Giza: Like a lot of furries actually, I kind of grew up thinking I was straight.

TygerCowboy: For many of us, our sexuality defines who we are.