RIFY ROYALTY
The gender-bending performance artist on trolling ‘straight acting’ gays on dating apps and why she’d be a great contestant on Drag Race.
The sickening drag performer on our current “genitalia, gender-policing culture” and trolling ‘masc4masc’ gays on dating apps.
“I don’t care about gender norms, genitalia, tucking or appearing one gender or the other,” NYC-based performance artist Rify Royalty tells us over the phone. “I just wanna pull a look that makes sense to me and make sure that I enjoy the finished product. I don’t care what people see it as. It’s what it means to me.”
Interesting quote to start with yeah? Have we piqued your interest? Well keep reading, because this gender-bending performer has a lot to say about drag, masculinity, and all you fucktards who engage in ‘masc4masc’ culture (not you, but it could be you). First, a bit of backstory? Rify Royalty – real name Sharif Abaz – is a prominent fixture in the US drag community, and is known by her peers for her sickening lewks that vary from David Bowieesque androgyny, classic pageant drag and fullblown Club Kid extravaganza. Over the past few years, she’s made her mark as an established MC, having hosted Drag Race viewing parties with stars from the franchise, and several other club nights around the motherfucking world (we would’ve used our go-to phrase ‘mothertucking’, but she doesn’t tuck, so.) “There would be people of all genders, all colours, it would be very inclusive,” she says of her performances. “I always try to make sure that I feature women. My personal acts are always disco or 80s, or 90s numbers. I don’t ever do anything super current. I try and keep things sexy and weird at the same time. If you can feel sexually confused and weirded out during my numbers, then I’ve done my job.” If we didn’t pique your interest the first time, then that should’ve done it.
Like most performers, Rify started her drag career after she went to local parties, donned a couple of friend’s wigs (we’ve all done it hun), but it wasn’t until one year at Pride that she realised it could be a full-time career. “There’s always people who say like, ‘Are you a Halloween queen? Or a Pride queen?’” she says. “I was a Pride queen. You always start drag on either Halloween or Pride. So I dressed up for Pride, went out and then loved it, and then went to parties and would pull out a look just for fun. Then I started go-go dancing, and slowly people would start asking me to perform, so I would perform for fun and it was a bit burlesque-y and a bit dra¥y kind of thing.” In 2014, Rify began her own monthly party, Straight Acting, for “butch queens up in pumps”, which she was inspired to start as a tongue-in-cheek way of giving a massive middle finger to men on dating profiles who look for “masc4masc, no femme, straight acting lads only”. She trolled men on apps such as Grindr and Scruff when marketing the event, posting images of herself in drag with the profile name ‘Straight Acting’. “It got people talking. Like, ‘Why are all these drag queens on Scruff with the profile name Straight Acting?’ And that was our official promo for the party and so it was a smart and funny way to troll all that dialogue that was happening on those apps, but making it playful and celebratory.”
She adds: “I think if we’re throwing parties, it should be for the queer community, especially at a queer bar, so I wanted to have a show that was not like any other drag show, which featured unpolished queens or queens who were masculine or boyish.
I had fellow go-go boys who just wanted to come out in a look. It kind of just highlighted that, it also highlighted women who always go through all of that bullshit when it comes to double standards.” Straight Acting evolved over time and now includes all kinds of queens, polished, unpolished, and several Drag Race alumni. Check out some gagworthy performances from queens such as Sasha Velour, Aja and Miz Cracker online (ga¥ing may occur). However, because she does her part as an activist by hosting Straight Acting, it doesn’t mean she won’t call out bullshit on the aforementioned dating apps. “If I see profiles that say ‘masculine only’ or whatever and they message me, I’m gonna let them know right away. What you think of masculine is actually just performative, because that’s what it is at the end of the day, masculinity is performative. Anyone who has any problematic dialogue in their profile, I’m gonna call them out. I’ll be like, ‘We’re not gonna fuck because this is a huge issue for me.’ I also think it’s important for people to do that on a regular basis. Call people out on their bullshit, because some of them may not even know they’re spewing bullshit, but if you tell them, they might rethink it. It might be one person whose perspective you’ve changed.”
Although the self-described “visceral” performer is an androgynous queen with a need to call out toxic masculinity, she says it’s not particularly important for her to blur the lines between masculinity and femininity. She’s doing what she wants to do, and rightfully thinks we should all give “less fucks” about what she’s got