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I don't find the "damsel in distress" trope to be sexist as used here. Asuna is planning her own escape, and upon hearing about Kirito, it's not as if she gives up and resolves to wait for him. Putting her in a cage is simply the result of the author's need to separate the protagonist from his love. Now, it could have been handled better, and Asuna could have been given an independent story-line that afforded her a chance to interact with someone other than Sugou, but this is a very simply-told story, and multiple alternating plots aren't to be expected.
However, as a whole the series itself is unabashedly sexist towards its female characters. None of the main girls are the agents of their own happiness. They (Sachi, Liz, Silicia, Asuna, Suguha, even Yui) have all required a man (our hero) to provide them with the happiness that they cannot find in themselves. It's really the old "a woman needs a man in order to be happy" trope. Of course, add to that the usual female-only fan service, and it's easy to see the double standard in the treatment of characters based on their gender. Maybe the later episodes/LNs get away from this, but so far the series has been your standard "haremish" anime, where the female characters are sexualized and the males are not, and the females are largely defined by how they relate to the male protagonist.
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