“White Capitalist Bitch” might be a more to-the-point name for Charli XCX’s new single, “Hot Girl” (not to be mistaken for her other temperature-as-aesthetic new single, “Hot In It”). Created for A24’s latest horror outing, Bodies Bodies Bodies, the song taps into some very Regina George (Rachel McAdams) energy as Charli XCX declares with unabashed confidence, “‘Cause I’m a hot girl, pop girl, rich girl/I’m a bitch girl, fast girl, catch me if you can, girl/You a swerve, girl, who the fuck are you, girl?/You just wanna be me.” That was certainly true for Cady Heron (Lindsay Lohan) wanting to, like, be Regina in Mean Girls. And so, regardless of what Bodies Bodies Bodies turns out to be plot-wise (other than a ripoff of Only Murders in the Building’s “The Tell” episode), there’s no denying it could have been just as tailor-made for the quintessential teen movie of 2004.
Picture it playing during the moment Janis Ian (Lizzy Caplan) introduces Regina to Cady from afar, as they watch her being carried out onto the field by a gaggle of lackey-esque boys just hoping to get “a taste” out of the non-deal. Although Missy Elliott’s “Pass That Dutch” was a fine choice to soundtrack this moment, if “Hot Girl” had existed at the time, there could be no arguing its perfection in encapsulating the essence of “bitch girl” Regina George. On a side note, Charli also announces unapologetically, “I’m really hot”—a.k.a. what Missy already said long ago on another song called the same from 2003’s This Is Not A Test!
Just as it is the case for “Pass That Dutch,” “Hot Girl” could have easily been played multiple times throughout Mean Girls. Like, for example, when Regina rolls up in her silver 2002 Lexus SC 430 to shout, “Get in loser, we’re going shopping!” Or when they pull up to her mansion after said mall outing—the ideal time for Charli to literally narrate, “Pull up to the mansion, pull up to the party/All my friends are so hot, we gonna get it started/Pull up to the mansion, but you are not invited/Lip gloss on and I look good.” Lip gloss application being something Cady is quite a fan of as well—in addition to pulling a Single White Female on Regina by totally emulating her steez. And, talking of 00s-era lip gloss that always came in an array of flavors, Charli adds, “I’m a hot girl and I come in different flavors.” She ramps up the 00s vibe with, “All the hot boys got me as their screensavers.”
Cady quickly started to embody this same level of arrogance after studying under Regina at the behest of Janis, her real friend who she suddenly starts treating with the same “you’re just my minion” attitude as Regina does to The Plastics after enough months spent as “a spy” within the group. She even goes so far as to wield a Regina George-inspired chestnut at Janis by telling her, “It’s not my fault you’re, like, in love with me or something.” Janis does well to remind Cady, “That’s the thing with you Plastics. You think everybody is in love with you when actually, everybody hates you!” And that’s another flipside element of “Hot Girl” that can be dissected: the fact that many so-called “hot girls” are actually quite delusional when it comes to assuming that everyone is “obsessed” with them when it’s patently not the reality. Because, after all, hot girls really are a dime a dozen (especially on Instagram). Particularly after Megan Thee Stallion popularized the phrase. And this is the very hot girl from which Charli “repurposed” the term, with elements of the music interpolating Thee Stallion’s song of the same name from the Tina Snow EP. Talking of “snow,” Charli also finds a way to mention that with the, um, lines, “But I’m going skiing even when the slopes are closed/‘Cause I’m so hot with snow up my nose.”
While coke was the one thing missing from Mean Girls (even if Cady name drops “crack” a few times), with so many scenes in said movie of both Regina and her copycat “friends” (/army of skanks) being rife for this single’s energy, Charli should probably pull an Ariana Grande in “thank u, next” and use the film as visual inspiration for whatever music video ends up accompanying it. Unfortunately, that wouldn’t be the best promotion for Bodies Bodies Bodies. The song itself actually being called “Hot Girl (Bodies Bodies Bodies)”—maybe solely as a means to differentiate from Megan Thee Stallion’s.
Nonetheless, Regina George’s entire way of being is what truly comes to mind as Charli sings such “I’m so fly” lyrics as, “Tall green, money green just like Bottegas/Taking off my clothes in the window for the neighbors/‘Cause I’m really hot (yeah), dancing in stilettos on the tabletop.” That last image speaks more to a drunk Kat Stratford (Julia Stiles) drunkenly dancing to Notorious B.I.G.’s “Hypnotize” in 10 Things I Hate About You, but anyway… if it isn’t one iconic millennial movie a pop singer is channeling, it’s sure to be interchangeable with another.
