Ariana Grande took to Twitter early this morning to speak out against the objectification of women and the way they are talked about after a fan encounter left her feeling "sick and objectified".
Grande detailed the incident in a post describing the incident which went down while she and her boyfriend, Mac Miller, were out picking up some food.
According to Grande, a young man approached the couple to excitedly tell Miller he was a fan, and "He was loud and excited and by the time M was seated in the driver's seat, he was literally almost in the car with us."
— Ariana Grande (@ArianaGrande) December 28, 2016
"I thought all of this was cute and exciting until he said 'Ariana is sexy as hell man. I see you, I see you hitting that!!!'"
"Hitting that? The f**k??" she continued. "This may not seem like a big deal to some of you but I felt sick and objectified. I was also sitting right there when he said it."
Grande continued to describe her feelings afterwards, saying she "felt really quiet and hurt" after the encounter and these are the "kinds of moments that contribute to women's sense of fear and inadequacy."
"I am not a piece of meat that a men gets to utilize for his pleasure," she wrote. "I'm an adult human being in a relationship with a man who treats me with love and respect."
Grande's tweet has been liked and retweeted over 230,000 times since it was posted this morning, and Grande hasn't been holding back from critics calling her "a tad hypocritical".
@ArianaGrande yet you objectify yourself in your music..... I mean I'm glad you are standing up for women but you're also a tad hypocritical
— Tirza (@xxTirzaJessxx) December 28, 2016
@xxTirzaJessxx that's the thing. women expressing sexuality is often mistaken for "hi come disrespect me!!!!".. & that's just not the case.
— Ariana Grande (@ArianaGrande) December 28, 2016
@xxTirzaJessxx women (and men) can express themselves however they'd like !!! even loving sex!! this is not an invitation to be disrespected
— Ariana Grande (@ArianaGrande) December 28, 2016
@xxTirzaJessxx by the way i am not fighting w you. it's an important conversation & i'll be as loud as i need to be til people understand. ♡
— Ariana Grande (@ArianaGrande) December 28, 2016
seeing a lot of "but look how you portray yourself in videos and in your music! you're so sexual!" .... please hold.. next tweet... i repeat
— Ariana Grande (@ArianaGrande) December 28, 2016
expressing sexuality in art is not an invitation for disrespect !!! just like wearing a short skirt is not asking for assault.
— Ariana Grande (@ArianaGrande) December 28, 2016
Women's choice. ♡ our bodies, our clothing, our music, our personalities..... sexy, flirty, fun.
it is not. an open. invitation.— Ariana Grande (@ArianaGrande) December 28, 2016
You are literally saying that if we look a certain way, we are yours to take. But we are not !!! It's our right to express ourselves. ♡
— Ariana Grande (@ArianaGrande) December 28, 2016