‘I don’t love you.’ Doja Cat’s problematic history of hating her own fans.

Doja Cat is not having a good time online at the moment. 

The pop star has decided to share some rather controversial opinions about, well, her own fans. Firstly, she told her following that she didn't want them to refer to themselves as 'Kittenz', an affectionate name her fandom have used for years. 

“My fans don’t get to name themselves s**t," the divisive singer wrote in a since-deleted post on Threads. "If you call yourself a ‘Kitten’ or fu**ing ‘Kittenz’ that means you need to get off your phone and get a job and help your parents with the house." 

According to Page Six, when a fan with a username containing 'Kittenz' replied to ask what they should change their name to, the singer actually replied “Just delete the entire account and rethink everything it’s never too late."

The fandom name came about in 2020 when Doja Cat herself shared a poll to ask her fanbase if they preferred “cubs” or “kittenz" — the latter was chosen as the overwhelming favourite. 

The singer did tweet at the time "I don’t feel morally right pet-naming you guys," and she's rarely adopted the name in the years since. 

But the singer wasn't done with Threads, as she then sent even more controversial replies to her fans. In one instance, when a fan asked for the 27-year-old to say she loved them, Doja replied "I don't thought cus [sic] I don't even know yall."

Image: Threads/@dojacat. 

Since the outburst, several of Doja's fan pages have deactivated their Twitter accounts. 

UK pop star Charli XCX also weighed in on the drama, referring to Doja Cat as "grumpy". 

I mean, agreed, but this is an understatement.

Doja's controversial words follow weeks of some online critics calling out the singer for reportedly dating controversial internet celeb Jeffrey 'J' Cyrus, who has a slew of allegations against him. 

In a thinly veiled response to the online discourse, Doja shared a since-deleted Thread that simply read, “My life my rules my style my attitude."

This isn't the first time Doja Cat has said something problematic about her fans. In May 2023, she tweeted that her first two albums were just an attempt to trick her fans into making her money.

"Planet Her and Hot Pink were cash-grabs and y'all fell for it," she tweeted. "Now I can go disappear somewhere and touch grass with my loved ones on an island while y'all weep for mediocre pop."

Lovely! 

She also has a history of deceiving her fans by teasing music she has no plans to make. In an interview with German fashion magazine CR Fashion Book, she revealed that her next album was going to be inspired by 1990s German rave music. 

“We just have so many ideas and making those ideas consistent is the challenge right now,” Doja told the interviewer. “I can’t really tell much. I just know there’s a lot going on. I’m very into this ’90s German rave kind of vibe right now and it’s really fun.”

But... she was just joking. Haha! Get it?? 

“I’m not doing a German rave culture album you guys,” she tweeted in September 2022. “I was pranking the outlet that interviewed me about it.”

I guess it's funny but also... it's not really. 

Quick! Listen to this episode of The Spill. Post continues after podcast.

She then told her followers in a series of 'pranks' on Twitter that her album would be R&B but no rap (jokes!), it would be a rock/emo album (jokes!), and a jazz record (jokes!).

It's all well and good to make light of life, after all this is the same Doja Cat who answered all of Emma Chamberlain's 2023 Met Gala interview questions with a series of deadpan meows.  

But when a fan's devotion to a pop star's music becomes the butt of the joke, is it all that funny?

Unlike more traditional pop stars, after years of trying to make it, Doja Cat rose to fame on TikTok with a viral song about being a cow titled 'Mooo!' From there, she released her breakout second studio album Hot Pink which features TikTok-famous songs like 'Say So' and 'Streets'. 

Doja's third album Planet Her produced mega-hits 'Kiss Me More', 'Woman' and 'You Right'.

As her fame has skyrocketed, Doja has had a complicated relationship with trolls online, especially when it comes to her tendency to react to people on social apps like Instagram and TikTok.

"I’m being flooded with people who have these preconceived f**king notions about me, and they come in and try to troll. Which I’m very good at handling,” she said in a February interview with Variety.

“A lot of people think I’m not good at handling trolls because I respond to them. But that’s the art of it: I love to go to fucking war with trolls. That’s just what I’ve grown up with; I’ve been on the internet for 1,000 fucking years and it’s just part of me: that I need to respond," she said. 

“I will gladly join in, balls to the wall. It’s fun for me. I’m a very messy bitch.”

So maybe, Doja is treating all her fans as trolls and she's trolling them right back? 

Hopefully, for Doja's sake, once the trolling is over, she'll still have fans to sell her albums, merchandise and tour tickets to — the same fans who have built her fortune and entire brand. 

Feature image: Getty.