In act 2, scene 1, Iago proceeds to criticize his wife before going on a rant about the negative qualities he believes to be found in all women. After Iago reveals his sexist opinions by ridiculing the entire female gender, Desdemona calls him a "slanderer" in line 119. When Desdemona petitions Iago to say something nice about her, Iago responds cleverly before once again criticizing females for using sex to manipulate men. Despite Iago's ignorant comments and prejudice against women, Desdemona continues to question his perception regarding various types of women, only to be astonished and appalled by his repeated offensive, sexists responses. After Iago tells Desdemona that the perfect woman could only "suckle fools and chronicle small beer," Desdemona responds by telling Cassio that Iago is a "profane and liberal counselor." Overall, Desdemona views Iago as an offensive, sexist man who does not respect women and is very rude.
Line 119 is a good start to figuring out what Desdemona thinks about Iago. She bluntly calls him a slanderer. She does not even waste time saying it with flowery language either. She just accuses him of spreading lies about a person with the specific intention of ruining his/her reputation. In this case, it is Emilia's reputation.
Oh, fie upon thee, slanderer!
Then, in line 158, she tells Iago that he is ignorant about women and their overall intelligence. Then, a bit later, Desdemona says that he is a horribly disrespectful and "profane" individual that should not be listened to. She directs much of her thoughts and advice about Iago to his wife. Desdemona is not wrong either. Audiences that know this play know that he is a horrible person, but even first-time readers and audiences cannot help but know that Iago deserves to be hated because of all of his racist and sexist comments about women in this scene.
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