That was pretty much my optomistic feeling too, that the term was well-known enough now that they were just using it as a simple description, rather than having some deeper meaning. (I've also noticed the term 'plushie' being used (correctly) in TV commercials, even!)
My pessimistic feeling, too, is still just that it was the writer of the article making any negative connections, rather than the designers, as the Pressed Fur summary seems to imply.
I'm also glad I'm not the only one who sees PF as bing somethat slanted. (How it compares to AFF I can't say, aince I don't read it) I find it to be pretty valuable as a link to a bunch of furries-in-media articles, but the summaries seem to come in two types: The mostly-con articles (by their own rating) tend to be painted as accurate 'exposals' of the state of the fandom, whereas they seem to usually consider the mostly-pro ones to be fluff boosterism at best. Sure, both of these are sometimes the case, but I feel that plenty of articles fall into other categories, too.
That was pretty much my optomistic feeling too, that the term was well-known enough now that they were just using it as a simple description, rather than having some deeper meaning. (I've also noticed the term 'plushie' being used (correctly) in TV commercials, even!)
My pessimistic feeling, too, is still just that it was the writer of the article making any negative connections, rather than the designers, as the Pressed Fur summary seems to imply.
I'm also glad I'm not the only one who sees PF as bing somethat slanted. (How it compares to AFF I can't say, aince I don't read it) I find it to be pretty valuable as a link to a bunch of furries-in-media articles, but the summaries seem to come in two types: The mostly-con articles (by their own rating) tend to be painted as accurate 'exposals' of the state of the fandom, whereas they seem to usually consider the mostly-pro ones to be fluff boosterism at best. Sure, both of these are sometimes the case, but I feel that plenty of articles fall into other categories, too.
Matrian