Fluffer

A fluffer is a person employed to keep a male adult film star aroused on the set. These duties, which do not necessarily involve touching the actors, are considered part of the makeup department. After setting up the desired angle, the director asks the actors to hold position and calls for the fluffer to "fluff" the actors for the shot. Fluffing could also entail sexual acts such as fellatio or non-penetrative sex.

According to some pornographic actors, such as Aurora Snow,James Deen, and Keiran Lee, fluffers do not actually exist.

In popular culture

In the 1998 videogame Fallout 2 it is possible for the player to become a fluffer for a post-apocalyptic studio engaged in the porn industry.

The 2001 film The Fluffer was about a film buff with a crush on a porn star who is straight, for whom he would end up working as a fluffer in gay porn. A four-minute short comedy film also titled The Fluffer was released in 2003.

In the 2003 fourth episode of the TV series Nip/Tuck, Matt McNamara's one-night stand with a pornographic "fluffer" (Marnette Patterson) results in a sexually transmitted infection scare.

Fluffer (London Underground)

On the London Underground, fluffer is the name given to a person employed to clean the tracks in the tunnels. The passage of the trains through the tunnels draws in dust and rubbish. Removing this debris is essential to maintain the safety of the Underground, as it would otherwise create a fire hazard.

The work is done at night during Engineering Hours, when the trains have finished running, and the electricity is switched off. Cleaning the tunnels is a heavy and dirty job, which has traditionally been a role carried out by teams of women. In 1947, a newsreel made by British Pathé captured the fluffers on film carrying carbide lamps, long brushes and scraping tools. The rubbish was removed in dustbins, loaded onto a trolley that was drawn along the rails.

In 1989, documentary filmmaker Molly Dineen chronicled the work of a team of fluffers at Angel station in Islington for a TV documentary called The Heart of the Angel.

These days, the fluffers have electric torches and protective clothing, and collect the dust in plastic bags. Fluffer teams still tend to be mainly made up of women.