Doja Cat said she feels “free” after losing 180,000 Instagram followers due to her scathing dispute with fans in July: “I’ve defeated a large beast.”
Doja Cat shared that she feels “free” after reportedly losing 180,000 Instagram followers due to the stinging remarks she directed toward her fanbase late July.
“Seeing all these people unfollow makes me feel like I’ve defeated a large beast that’s been holding me down for so long,” Doja wrote on her Instagram Story Aug. 16, “and it feels like I can reconnect with the people who really matter and love me for who I am and not for who I was.”
The mass unfollowing came after the “Say So” singer told her fans to “get off your phone and get a job and help your parents with the house” when social media users were debating if their fanbase name should be Kitten or Kittenz, according to Threads screenshots obtained from the interaction.
In response, one fan asked Doja if she could reassure the fandom that she still loved them, writing, “I wanna hear you say (I do love you guys) As usual you say to your fans.” However, the Grammy winner didn’t mince her words, firing back, “i don’t though cuz i don’t even know y’all.”
Doja deleted her Threads account since the dispute. However, she recently reflected on her relationship with fame, in particular to when fans expect her to behave or appear a certain way.
“My theory is that if someone has never met me in real life, then, subconsciously, I’m not real to them,” Doja told Harper’s Bazaar in an interview published Aug. 16. “So when people become engaged with someone they don’t even know on the internet, they kind of take ownership over that person. They think that person belongs to them in some sense.”
However, Doja noted she’s come to terms with the frenzy.
“And when that person changes drastically, there is a shock response that is almost uncontrollable. … I’ve accepted that that’s what happens,” she added. “So I put my wigs on and take them off. I shave my head or my eyebrows. I have all the freedom in the world.”