People here dissing the prince as if it weren’t just explained that he experienced a severe trauma as a child. Sure, someone needs to explain that his thoughts and his way of expressing them are problematic, but insulting someone with trauma ain’t helping anyone.
My guess is that they might be both magical. Before he got to know her, she was just any other girl and yet she was still the only one that could approach her. He probably unconsciously casts magic to every woman near him and touches him to become incapacitated while she might be unconsciously blocking magic.
The “I don’t see you as a woman” might be either how he sees every woman or him separating her from “women” because of her being the only one capable of approaching him or because after he got to know her, she’s the only safe “woman” and therefore different from the dangerous and predatory “women” that was ingrained into his head after he was assaulted.