He greets Desdemona, a virgin with high social status, by saying "You men of Cyprus, let her have your knees. Hail to thee lady!" (II.i.84), on the verge of worshipping her like the Virgin Mary. Yet with his lover, Bianca, a whore and a courtesan with no honour in the Elizabethan sense of the term, he uses imperatives such as "Take me this work out." and "Go to, woman". This may show that Cassio and Bianca are a more intimate couple than the others in the play, as the informal language they use shows a close and relaxed relationship, similar to Beatrice and Benedick's in Much Ado About Nothing. Bianca can also be compared to Margaret as, in both plays different levels of honour are attributed to women of different class. Margaret and Bianca are forgiven for their promiscuity while Hero and Desdemona are punished. This suggests an inconsistency in the idea of female honour, which is clearly dependent on social status.
Hero is a chaste, virginal woman. However, while Desdemona is strong and bold, Hero can be seen, at least from a modern perspective, as pathetic, while from an Elizabethan audience's point of view she can be seen as an honourable character. Women like Hero were easily slandered as, in Elizabethan times, female sexuality was something feared by men. They were seen to have a dangerous power to tempt and seduce which was beyond male control. The idea of male honour was largely based on a fear of cuckoldry. In the denunciation scene (act 4, scene 1) Hero is described by Claudio as showing "but the sign and semblance of her honour" (line 31). Her virtue is treated with great importance, especially by Leonato. He sees her loss of virginity as a loss of honour for the entire family, saying, "Hence from her, let her die" (IV.i.153), which means he'd rather she die than live with the shame of being unchaste. She is talked about more than she talks herself, and becomes a victim of misrepresentation.