“You’re only insecure ‘cause we’re here, we’re whoreified!”

The Sacramento band Whoreified includes a fearsome combination of outspoken lyrics and femme-fronted leadership to create a truly exhilarating experience for their audience. The band is comprised of three main members including Ruby Copher on guitar, Frankie Cerrato on vocals and Bella Tutupoly on bass. Each of these women have expressed a love for the punk scene and the creation process which has provided the basis for the Whoreified experience. 

This April they released their first demo called “Slutty And Scared” to convey their passion for music and advocacy to Sacramento’s punk scene. 

“I love inspiring people and sharing our art with them,” Cerrato said.  “Music is my life and has changed my life in so many ways.”

The band was started by Cerrato in 2023 and before it was fully established Copher joined on drums before going their separate ways again. 

Now, all three musicians have been playing together since October 2024, with their first official show together being in December. Since then, they’ve performed multiple times in the punk scene at venues like Cafe Colonial and other independent shows while also balancing the workload of college students. With the recent release of their EP, fans can now dive deeper into the artistic capabilities of this group. 

Cerrato works as the primary lyricist with Copher and Tutupoly creating riffs on their respective instruments as well as personally creating lines to contribute to their overall songwriting process.

Even though they all work towards crafting aspects with their personal roles, each member has expressed how hands-on and collective their songwriting process is. Part of their band practice is used to have collaborative conversations, as they bounce ideas of riffs and lyrics off each other to create fully formed songs. They say they make a point to write songs formed by each member’s perspectives with identity, race, politics and other femme-oriented experiences. 

In staying true to their punk roots the band has gotten political in calling out the unjust natures of law enforcement, systematic racism and the acknowledgement of historical and current genocidal events. This is communicated through songs such as “Distrust” which is displayed as a declaration of dissatisfaction in our system as well as a call for accountability for the negative effects of systematic violence. The song itself calls out societal issues with police brutality, incarceration bias, the aiding of genocide and ideals of hate and bigotry as it ends with the line, “This is how you take a stand?/Proud to have blood on your hands,” to effectively demand accountability. Each member conveyed the essential nature of politics and political activism in the punk genre, with Cerrato adding how rooted punk is in the ideology of not conforming to societal norms and challenging oppressive systems. 

The band stays true to the genre with their support in the work of collective action and the liberation of marginalized communities. This is shown through their unapologetic lyrics that call out the unjust treatment to these communities and hold them accountable for change. 

Tutupoly describes how crucial conversations around these topics are on the basis of creating change. 

“The punk subculture is all about confronting disproportionality through community and direct action,” Tutupoly said. “If we can inform others on issues they wouldn’t normally know about, even a little, then there are more allies for problems faced by those marginalized.”

Additionally, Copher says that the genre is derived from radical ideologies and in order to stay true to the genre, your presence in the scene must be rooted in these aspects.  

Bass player and secondary lyricist Tutupoly, stresses the importance of themes like sexual exploitation, beauty standards, the prevalence of eating disorders and young girl’s desire to conform to unrealistic ideals when speaking about femme-expereinces in their songs. Cerrato affirms these inspirations by adding how the experiences of objectification and misogyny are part of the woman experience which supports its continuous relevance in songs such as “Little Bitch (Bitch Boy)” and “No Respect.” With their song “No Respect” lyrics like, “In your eyes I have no worth/The choice isn’t mine, instead it’s yours,” works to bring attention to misogynistic treatment and ideologies used against women. 

As the band is femme-fronted the appearance of these experiences in their music, will always be relevant to their creation process as well as the diverse audience of the punk scene. Copher supports her bandmates’ inspiration statements by sharing how their personal identity and viewpoints in life affects their lyrical ideas. 

“Generally I think people write about their own experiences so for a band mostly comprised of queer women topics like misogyny, homophobia and facism will always be present,” Copher said. 

Even though Whoreified’s femme-fronted ideals hold importance and inspiration in their music and scene, their gender identity should not be looked at as their primary aspect of the band. 

In a historically male-dominated scene you would expect them to run into misogynistic issues related to their level of acceptance in the scene. However, each member has revealed the level of diversity and acceptance they’ve experienced as participants in the scene. Copher even goes on to say that she doesn’t feel her gender has had an immense impact on her place as a participant in the scene or in any of the other bands she’s played in. Both Tutupoly and Cerrato explain how their personal identities as women of color in the scene has been generally accepted, but as musicians they’ll occasionally receive misogynistic comments from sound guys or a crowd member belittling their musical capabilities.  

Even though some may look down on their musical capabilities due to gender, Cerrato emphasizes that there is a level of support for femme-fronted bands on the basis of importance in representation. However, this does not curb the amount of back-handed misogynistic compliments given about the “surprisingly” impressive nature of their performances or the skill level of their writing. 

“Since we’re women they expect failure,” Cerrato said. “Being a woman in the punk scene has and always will be a combat of having to prove ourselves.”

Despite the member’s pride in providing femme-fronted representation, they believe that their gender should not overshadow the reality of their capabilities as musicians. 

Now the band channel’s these experiences and ideals into their first released demo together called “Slutty & Scared.” This release consists of five tracks going in order from “Whoreified,” “Distrust,” “Little Bitch (Bitch Boy),” “Christ Obscene” and “No Respect.” Each song spits out powerful lyrics that command respect on topics from systematic oppressions to sexist behaviors. These intoxicating demands create an empowering demo that inspires the audience to think on important issues while simultaneously becoming fired up with the upbeat pounding energy of their sound.

To experience the magnetic nature of this demo at home, it can be streamed on Spotify, Apple

Music, Bandcamp and Youtube. However, to fully experience the atmosphere of these songs in person, the band’s next live performance will be at Harlow’s, a downtown Sacramento music venue, on May 16 with punk band 7 Seconds. 

In order to stay up to date with the band’s musical journey and shows one can follow them on their instagram at @whoreified916. 

Whether fans choose to attend a live show or support via streams, they should be aware of what the band hopes people take away from the musical experience. The band expresses its overall desire that their music inspires people to freely speak their minds and become open minded to advocating for positive change. On a personal level, Cerrato wants to influence people to destigmatize their perceptions around women musicians and their overall validity in the punk scene. With their display of authenticity they encourage resistance to mainstream standards and present a variety of societal issues to their audiences. 

Copher reinforces their overall aim to inspire by describing their message and fight for positivity among their audiences. 

“People should be able to live their lives openly, express themselves freely, and spend their energy on the people they love and causes they care about,” Copher said. 

With their vociferous and energetic presence and ability to flesh out important conversations into lyrics, this is a band definitely worth the attention they are receiving. As feedback from their latest album rolls in and they continue to perform within California’s punk scene, audiences can only prepare for the unapologetic artwork soon to come from these musicians.