Anna Paquin has a story about industry sexism to tell

Anna Paquin was left in an uncomfortable situation after a male executive made an "awkward compliment".

The New Zealand-raised actor took to social media after a male executive made note of her dress, which Paquin found to be sexist.

"Trivial anecdote: I walked into a meeting today was informed by a male exec 'oh you're wearing a dress...'." Paquin posted on Twitter.

"What's the appropriate response?" she added, asking her fans for help on the matter.

One user replied to Paquin, writing: "Sorry, I left my Merlotte's uniform back at the studio."

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To which Paquin replied jokingly, "along with [my] nipple tassels and stripper pole ..."

When another Twitter user asked if the situation had really happened to the True Blood star, Paquin said, "Yup! Was this some kind of awkward compliment on my possession of a female reproductive system? Or just captain obvious day?"

Later she also wrote: "I went with 'nice to meet you' and then spent about 10 mins wondering if there was an issue with my hearing."

She added: "Yeah, my dress and I were a little confused too..."

Paquin, who is known for her roles in vampire drama True Blood and the 1993 Jane Campion film, The Piano, has recently been working on the TV mini-series Roots.

This isn't the first time Paquin has let out her frustration on the social media website. Last week the actress slammed the paparazzi on Twitter for taking photos of her children without her permission, saying that the privacy of her kids had been "violated".

"To be completely clear I'm aware as an actress I have no right to privacy, even on my own property but leave my kids out of it. Nuff said," she wrote.