"I'm not a piece of meat": Ariana Grande's troubling run-in with fan prompts open letter.

“Ariana is sexy as hell man, I see you… I see you hitting that.”

This was directed at US rapper Mac Miller, the boyfriend of singer and actress Ariana Grande.

The couple were in the car (yes, the both Grande and Miller) and they were picking up food. The young man began telling Miller how much of a fan he was. He then complimented Miller on “hitting that”, meaning Grande.

The Side to Side singer was disgusted and shared her anger via Twitter.

“Went to pick up food with my boyfriend tonight and a young boy followed us to the car to tell Mac that he’s a big fan,” Ariana wrote. “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!!!’ *pause* Hitting that? the f*ck?”

“This may not seem like a big deal to some of you, but I felt sick and objectified,” Grande continued. “I was also sitting right there when he said it.”

pic.twitter.com/FL1tOHAZvN

— Ariana Grande (@ArianaGrande) December 28, 2016

Grande said the moment continued to affect her, long after it was over.

“I’ve felt really quiet and hurt since that moment,” she wrote. “Things like [that] happen all the time and are the kinds of moments that contribute to women’s sense of fear and inadequacy. I am not a piece of meat that a man gets to utilise for his pleasure. I’m an adult human being in a relationship with a man who treats me with love and respect.”

The reason Grande made her experience public, however, was awareness.

So many women have been made to feel the same way, Grande said. She believes the best way to counter the feelings of shame and hurt that come from being objectified, is to call such sexist behaviour out.

“It hurts my heart that so many young people are so comfortable using these phrases and objectifying women with such ease,” she wrote. “I felt like speaking out about this one experience tonight because I know very well that most women know the sensation of being spoken about in an uncomfortable way publicly or taken advantage of publicly by a man. We need to talk about these moments openly because they are harmful and they live on the inside of us as shame. We need to share and be vocal when something makes us feel uncomfortable because if we don’t, it will just continue.”

Enough mocking Melania Trump. Post continues below.

She ended her post strong, with the following reminder:

“We are not objects or prizes. We are QUEENS.”

Grande copped backlash following the Tweet, with some people questioning how she can be so against “objectification” when she also “objectifies herself” in her music videos.

Grande took this as an opportunity to continue the conversation.

“Expressing sexuality in art is not an invitation for disrespect,” she wrote. “Just like wearing a short skirt is not asking for assault.”

She continued to say that women should have the right to choose what they wear, as well as the way they express themselves and their sexuality, without fear of being abused.

No matter what you think of Grande, or her music, the fact we're having this conversation, writing this post, following these tweets is a positive step towards recognising comments like "hitting that" for what they are: sexist, bigoted and completely unfair.