You know it’s an interesting day when you notice a White Chicks homage in a K-Pop video.

I am, of course, talking about the (G)I-DLE video for “퀸카 (Queencard)”. A quick YouTube search shows that I was not the only person who noticed that the dance scene in the first chorus was, indeed, a familiar sight. It has become somewhat of a meme that this scene is in “Queencard”.

However, as a filmmaker, I can’t help but wonder what this homage means. I mean, White Chicks is a very specific choice – a movie where two black men pretend to be rich white socialite women? You don’t pay homage to a movie that is both as iconic and as controversial as that without having some sort of purpose behind it.

When my partner showed me “Queencard”, she pointed out that the thesis of the video appears to be that western beauty standards still penetrate Korean culture – specifically Korean pop culture. I am very much inclined to agree. Almost, if not all, of the extras are white, black, or otherwise not Korean. The dyed hair and contact lenses that the members of (G)I-DLE are, consequently, an indicator of the unnatural situation. The Y2K fashion is an indicator of the teen movies that a lot of American Millennials and Zoomers grew up with.

What’s important to remember is that there is a little more to a White Chicks homage. The movie revolves around the tense friendship dynamics and rivalries of women, from the outside perspective of men. The female characters actively tear each other down, but they actively build each other up in equal measure. The male leads learn as much from the female leads as the female leads do from them. While there are no major male characters in “Queencard”, the implication of the reference seems to be that women have the capacity for both when it comes to their relationships.

That said, there is another element at play here – camp.

Camp is, in essence, a commitment to the ridiculous, whether you know it or not. White Chicks is a camp classic, for example, because while it’s very much a comedy, everybody in the cast and crew are firmly committed to the ridiculous. Even though everyone is over the top, you accept that these people are real because everyone involved in the production is truly living in their role. If you want examples from K-Pop, Super Junior’s movie Attack on the Pin-Up Boys is a perfectly done camp film, and the K-Drama The Uncanny Counter flirts with camp often. (Don’t even get me started on A Korean Odyssey.)

Camp is a common (but often overlooked) element of K-Pop. It is a device to communicate elements of the story or message when other methods are not sufficient. And “Queencard” uses camp masterfully, in that the shock factor at some of the over the top elements allows you to think about what they mean. Why are all the doctors dancing around Soyeon before her surgery? Because the standards she is subjected to are, unfortunately, ubiquitous. Why are all the cars crashing in the presence of Minnie or Soyeon? Because that is what these characters think they want. Why is it implied that Miyeon is replacing Minnie between shots? Because it’s unfortunately very easy to only think about yourself.

So, this got me thinking. How does (G)I-DLE use the language of film homages? There are other homages in this video, including nods to Mean Girls and Ariana Grande’s “Break Up With Your GF”. My brother even said that the pool scene may be a reference to the 2008 movie Wild Child. There are more homages in (G)I-DLE’s companion music video “Allergy” as well. This YouTube short does an excellent job showing them in context. At a glance, all of the movies and music videos referenced are all about the complicated relationships between girls – how they break each other down and build each other up in equal measure. As such, we can assume the thesis of “Queencard” is that women are complicated, and that the only thing you can do in the end is be yourself.