Having read his book the answer is yes, but not exceedingly so for a man of his time. His chapters on wooing dancing girls is not for someone with especially delicate sensibilities. But remember this is during the 40s, 50s, and 60s. Sexism was the norm, in fact it was considered good for society in upper class circles.
It's unfair to be hard on a man for simply living in a different age.
>>It's unfair to be hard on a man for simply living in a different age.
Unfortunately this how most current day news, trends and discussions are shaping out to be. Pretty much a lot of things considered bad now, were once perfectly acceptable.
Another annoying things these days are people who pick up some kind of negative thing about a famous personality and use that to discredit their whole life's work. Like talking something negative about Gandhi, and then use that ruse to make it look like his whole life was a waste.
I think that in cases like that you are the one being reductionist, not the other way around. Bringing up the flaws of people like Ghandi, MLK, Feynman, Hawking etc is a perfectly reasonable thing to do, even a responsible thing to do. Great men are still imperfect and their problems do not discredit them.
In a way its dangerous to not bring up their flaws; say MLK jr. defended the rights of people of color but was against gay rights. It is wrong to idolize him utterly, because then his views can legitimize views we think are wrong now.
I don't think any reasonable person tries to tear down great men and women by bringing up their flaws. I think they are just trying to recognize the real person, rather than the ideal. Their life does not reduce to one mistake just because we talk about it happening.
All you say is true in general. But Gandhi, while apotheosized in the West, is not so universally admired in India. Many people celebrated his assassination. A great many Indians, at the time and now, think that he set back Indian independence significantly, and that, to the extent that his economic ideas were adopted, they retarded the development of the nation.
It's unfair to be hard on a man for simply living in a different age.