A Manhattan legislator said Monday that she “appreciates” the vandal who defaced a Florida statue honoring the sailor kissing a female nurse in Times Square to mark the end of World War II because it was a “forced” smooch.

“I appreciate someone recognizing that a random man grabbing a random woman is completely inappropriate,” City Councilwoman Helen Rosenthal, who chairs the Committee on Women, told The Post after a hearing on adding more monuments in the city honoring women and minorities.

“In today’s lens, which is all we have, I am grateful that someone brought this to the floor.”

She pointed out that the “Unconditional Surrender” statue in Sarasota was vandalized and that the #MeToo movement has shined a spotlight on behavior that was once considered acceptable — but must now be questioned.

“We saw this most recently with the spray-painting of #MeToo on the Unconditional Surrender statue in Florida memorializing a forced kiss at the victory parade at the end of World War II,” she said.

Minutes later, Republican Councilman Joe Borelli of Staten Island, who attended the hearing, had had enough. He tweeted a copy of the iconic photo and wrote: “Peak #Woke – a NYC Council member has now set her sites on the WWII Times Square kiss photo. Can’t America just have this moment?”

The Florida vandal struck last week — a day after George Mendonsa, the sailor shown kissing white-clad dental assistant Greta Zimmer Friedman at the “Crossroads of the World” on Aug. 14, 1945, died at the age of 95.

Friedman died in 2016 at age 92.

The photo was snapped the day Japan surrendered.

Police are still looking for the vandal.