Sadly, most women have experienced an inappropriate or sexist comment at some point in their lives.
Ariana Grande took to Twitter last night to share her own experience of receiving a derogatory remark, and described how she felt "sick and objectified" after a fan made a lewd comment about her relationship with rapper Mac Miller.
"Went to pick up food with my boyfriend tonight and a young boy followed us to the car to tell Mac he's a big fan," she wrote. She desribed how the boy was "literally almost in the car with us" but she thought it was "cute and exciting" until he made an unexpected and unpleasant remark.
"He said 'Ariana is sexy as hell man, I see you, I see you hitting that!'" Ariana continued in her note.
"I was sitting right there when he said it," she said, before making a very important point: that she isn't the first woman – and unfortunately won't be the last – to be on the receiving end of a throwaway comment that reduces women to sex objects.
"Things like [this] happen all the time and... contribute to women's sense of fear and inadequacy," she wrote. "I am not a piece of meat that a man gets to utilize for his pleasure. I am an adult human being in a relationship with a man who treats me with love and respect."
Studies on street harassment show that Ariana's experience is depressingly common. US nonprofit Stop Street Harassment commissioned a survey of 2000 women in 2014, and found 65% of respondents had experienced harassment of some kind.
The reaction to Ariana's tweet has been overwhelmingly supportive, and she responded to fans who asked how Mac Miller reacted to tell them he "drove the f**k away".
Mac and Ariana collaborated on her song The Way in 2013, and went public with their relationship in August 2016.
Ariana even engaged with a commenter who accused her of being "hypocritical" because she "objectifies herself" in her music".
"That's the thing. Women expressing sexuality is often mistaken for "hi come disrespect me!!!".. & that's just not the case [sic]," she replied.
She ended her note by encouraging all women to speak up and call out unacceptable behaviour.
"We need to share and be vocal when something makes us feel uncomfortable, because if we don't, it will just continue. We are not objects or prizes. We are QUEENS."
We couldn't agree more.