Jaleesa M. Jones

USA TODAY

Ariana Grande has a Problem with our culture's reductive view of women, and she’s not going to be silent about it anymore.

In a message posted to Twitter Tuesday night, Grande shared that she and her beau, The Way collaborator Mac Miller, were picking up food when they had a run-in with one of Miller’s fans. "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," Grande explained. "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!"

For Grande, being discussed as if she were not present — and being reduced to a "piece of meat" in the process — left her feeling "sick and objectified."

But the singer, who admits that she’s been "really quiet and hurt since that moment," says she refuses to recoil from the broader issue the incident reflects: The pervasive dehumanization of women. "Things like (this) happen all the time and are the kinds of moments that contribute to women's sense of fear and inadequacy," she wrote.

"We need to talk about these moments openly because they are harmful and they live on inside of us as shame," she continued. "We need to share and be vocal when something makes us feel uncomfortable because if we don’t, it will just continue."

In response to a fan who argued that Grande objectified herself in her music, Grande outlined the difference between women practicing agency over their bodies and their sexuality and men viewing them as parts and encroaching on their autonomy.

"Women expressing sexuality is often mistaken for 'hi come disrespect me,' and that’s just not the case," Grande wrote. "Women (and men) can express themselves however they’d like!!! Even loving sex!! This is not an invitation to be disrespected."