OPINION | The Doja Cat problem: can fans and their 'faves' be friends?

In what should be an exciting time for Doja Cat's fan base — with an album and tour around the corner — the “Kittenz” find themselves in a civil war with who they want the rapper to be versus who she says she is.  

I’ve never been a fan of separating the art from the artist. We’ve seen many abusive men prove how indifference to highly questionable behaviour can help them successfully hide in open sight. The 2010s have brought in a new challenge though, a world where the art and the artist are inseparable.  

In a post-stan (stans are overzealous fans of celebrities) world where an artist’s online persona is as important as the material they’re releasing, Doja’s sudden open dismissal of her fan base and the pressure to perform a parasocial relationship with them is one of the most radical things a pop star in the digital era has done. In the last months, she’s told them she doesn’t love them, to get jobs, called them creepy and that she hates their fan base name “Kittenz”. 

The Doja Cat situation is particular to the kind of star she is though. When you come up through viral internet moments (she hit the mainstream after her viral track MOOO!) people feel responsible for giving you the platform for success. Additionally, this creates a virtual proximity, where fans demand transparency and immediate explanations because their idol is so easily available to them online. It warps our understanding of “don’t meet your heroes” as the likes of Doja Cat are on Instagram live sharing sandwich recipes. 

But fame during the digital age can be gruelling if you’re on the wrong side of a conversation. This wasn’t much of an issue when the conversation was almost entirely about her music and quirky persona. Now that she’s being taken to task for her personal life, she seems less willing to be open.

Let’s talk about the boyfriend.

Doja Cat’s fans hate her musician boyfriend, Jeffrey “J” Cyrus. In the past couple of weeks, the controversial YouTuber has been exposed as an alleged cheater, racist, transphobe and sexual assaulter by her own fans. There have been a number of threads on X, and a petition begging the rapper to break up with him because of egregious behaviour in public and in private ultimately caused a rift between Doja and her fans.  

While her stans rightfully get to hold her accountable, she seems to be particularly sensitive and biting when it comes to her private life.

We saw this behaviour when Doja was questioned about her regular usage of an LGBTQ+ slur (the F-word) and her active participation on racist fetish internet chat rooms. Doja does not spend a lot of time explaining herself, furthermore she doesn’t pretend to care for people she “doesn’t know”. This is a dilemma in 2023 when fan feedback is immediate and she regularly goes on Instagram lives unrehearsed and unscripted, where she knows they will have direct communication with her. 

It's also disheartening because much like Billie Eilish and Olivia Rodrigo, Doja is one of the last acts who feel like traditional pop stars. She’s managed to elevate female rap to a high pop calibre in ways reminiscent of Missy Elliot at her peak. Even her latest single Paint the Town Red is a signifier of her ability to deliver highly conceptual visuals with incredibly catchy music. If acts like Doja Cat are buckling under the pressure, where does that leave an industry that’s already struggling to create stars in the TikTok era?

Also, as consumers, it’s time to let go of the idea that our “faves” are our friends. As harsh as her words are, Doja Cat is right — we are all strangers. The era of blind trust that the image we’re sold is who the artist really is has ended, and we need to decide whether we’re here for the music or the person, because as we’ve come to find out, the person is almost always more human than we may have expected.  

Doja is going to have to choose between what kind of star she is too. Is she a Kendrick who releases music and disappears from the world, letting the work speak for itself, or does she want to be a Nicki Minaj, whose life is often lived online without any care of consequence and questioning? 

What we do know is that Doja Cat still has a lot to give musically; her tour and album will probably be enough to shut her detractors up — but that’s only if they still care to listen by the time of its release.