Prince Philip is a old school sexist

The argument

Prince Philip’s problematic history with sexist remarks reflects his sexist outlook. In 1984, on a visit to Kenya, Prince Philip remarked “You are a woman, aren’t you?” after accepting a gift from a local woman. He even asked a female navy cadet if she worked in a strip club just ten years ago. The Duke of Edinburgh makes misogynistic remarks such as these not because he is trying to be funny, but because he is a sexist person. Even though the BBC tried, in the past, to brush over Prince Philip’s racist and sexist remarks by saying he was just “lightening the mood,” the harsh truth is that his words and overall frame of mind are incredibly derogatory. Even if Prince Philip was trying to be humorous, sexist humor caters to an outmoded, elitist, and misogynistic Europe that no longer exists. Recently, Prince Philip reportedly discouraged Prince Harry from marrying Meghan Markle, saying, “One steps out with actresses, one doesn’t marry them.” A very distasteful and demeaning remark against women like this evidently didn’t deter Harry from marrying Meghan, but nevertheless, it shows how chauvinistic Prince Philip still remains even in modern times.

Context

Prince Philip, the Duke of Edinburgh, has a long history of uttering racial and sexist slurs that dates back to the ‘60s. His old-world sexism has been brushed aside as “gaffes” in the past by British media, but his offensive remarks remain in dispute today.

Premises

Counter-arguments

Prince Philip is a product of his time and place, so while he has made sexist remarks in the past, it might have just been part of his off-color humor. The Duke of Edinburgh has been known to make jokes, some of which have been very distasteful, but that doesn't necessarily make him a sexist. He could have made off-putting jokes to try and be funny, not because he truly believes or agrees with the sexism behind the jokes he makes. Overall, the 99-year-old Prince Philip has an embarrassing history with sexist remarks, but he grew up in a time and place where those sexist remarks were considered funny and not distasteful; to condemn the elderly Prince Philip now to be a complete sexist because of past remarks is to forget the old-world Europe he originally grew up in.

Rejecting the premises

[Rejecting P1] The remarks are not in dispute; what they establish is. A handful of quoted lines from decades of public engagements is a small sample, and the position asks what kind of figure he was rather than which sentences he once said. [Rejecting P2] The premise moves from the effect of a remark to the belief behind it. A joke can be demeaning in effect while its teller does not hold the view it implies, which is precisely the distinction the opposing account draws. [Rejecting P3] The remark about actresses concerns class and the institution's marriage conventions at least as much as gender, and it is second-hand — reported rather than recorded, which is thin support for a claim about a persisting outlook.