Reneé Rapp's New Mean Girls Song Gives The Gay Regina George Fantasy
"I mean, right? She was a lesbian!"
At long last, queer Regina George is a reality. Well, for about three minutes, at least. On Dec. 15, Reneé Rapp dropped her new song featured on the upcoming Mean Girls musical movie soundtrack. “Not My Fault” isn’t just an unapologetic gay anthem; it also re-contextualizes the iconic high school queen bee Regina George through a queer lens, causing some fans to wonder how Rapp’s portrayal of Regina in the new movie will differ from the original.
As the song title suggests, “Not My Fault” pulls its inspiration from one of the original movie’s most quotable lines. “It’s not my fault you’re like in love with me or something!” Cady Heron screams at her tossed-aside former friend Janis Ian after fully transforming into Regina’s mean-girl clone. The accusation, which also opens Rapp’s song, is a core element of a long-held theory that Regina has always been secretly queer.
As Mean Girls fans have pointed out over the years, Regina’s actions throughout the 2004 movie seem to hint she’s actually a lesbian. She constantly zeroes in on Janis’ assumed homosexuality, never actually seems attracted to her boyfriend Aaron Samuels, and ends the movie joining the women’s lacrosse team. (Yes, that last point is a tired stereotype, but it does feel like the type of gay joke an early-2000s comedy would make.)
Rapp herself subscribes to this theory — “Regina George was a lesbian,” she wrote on Instagram on Dec. 4 — and used her new song to give fans the sapphic mean-girl fantasy they’ve waited nearly two decades for.
“It’s not my fault / You came with her but she might leave with me,” Rapp teases in the chorus. She finally says the quiet part out loud in the second verse:
Get her number, get her name / Get a good thing while you can / Kiss a blonde (Kiss a blonde), kiss a friend (Okay) / Can a gay girl get an, "Amen?"
Upon the track’s release, fans immediately began theorizing that Rapp’s version of Regina may be gay in the 2024 movie. Though Rapp, who is bisexual herself, has previously teased that her Regina is “very gay,” she followed that up by saying it’s mainly in her vibes. And since the film is an adaptation of the Broadway musical, in which Regina’s character is largely unchanged from the movie, it doesn’t seem likely the new Regina will be overtly queer. But hey, anything could happen!
Mean Girls will hit theaters on Jan. 12, 2024.
