Is this necessarily sexist? He's not showing any belief in being superior to women, nor is he discriminating against her in any way. In fact, he complimented her at length on her professional success.
At one point he described her as a sexy single woman. He even mentioned her husband and asked for him to stand up. While I would consider that to be a very odd and uncomfortable way to end his introduction, it doesn't seem sexist. If somebody went on at length about how great I am professionally, and then threw in a statement about me being a sexy single man, I'm pretty sure I'd just consider it as an added complement.
I understand there is real sexism in the industry. I just don't think this is it. It's just an odd comment from a person who may be odd/uncomfortable around women.
Think of it like this: you are at a professional setting and being introduced in front of an audience. These points are made about you while you stand by and the audience watches you:
1. grannyg00se is a great person to work with
2. grannyg00se has a keen understanding and knowledge of the industry
3. grannyg00se brings a lot to the table and is a valued member of their team
You stand there and maybe blush a little, proud. Then,
4. grannyg00se was a really sexy single and just got married and is still sexy.
How is that relevant to the audience? If you are a guy and everyone in the audience is a guy, maybe that's some kind of frat behaviour that gets a laugh out of everyone. But if you are a women on that stage suddenly you are subject to intense pressure: be good at your job and be sexy because your female and the being good at your job isn't enough.
It's complex and it's hard to really explain how it feels but I've been in situations like this. It's just really uncomfortable even when you know it's not meant in bad faith, that maybe some guy in the audience is objectifying you and no longer paying attention to what you are contributing outside of being pretty to look at.
Something can be both a compliment and sexist. Especially if it's a compliment that has a lot of baggage and assumptions.
There is a history women only being viewed as good for marriage and babies. It used to be seen as unusual & unnatural for a woman to not want babies and marriage. It was seen as weird for a woman to want to focus on carrer rather than marriage. Also they were viewed as "nice to look at, but unable to do any real work". Things have gotten a lot better, but there are still bits of this attitude around.
If you compliment a woman based on (a) getting married and (b) physical attractiveness, you are slightly re-inforcing that meme. You are also signaling that you might be the sort of person who thinks the above, or that you support the above attitudes.
After all, would you compliment a Jewish speaker about how much money they had? Or compliment an older man about how they haven't needed to go to the toilet in a while?
At one point he described her as a sexy single woman. He even mentioned her husband and asked for him to stand up. While I would consider that to be a very odd and uncomfortable way to end his introduction, it doesn't seem sexist. If somebody went on at length about how great I am professionally, and then threw in a statement about me being a sexy single man, I'm pretty sure I'd just consider it as an added complement.
I understand there is real sexism in the industry. I just don't think this is it. It's just an odd comment from a person who may be odd/uncomfortable around women.