Why is 'c*nt' so much more derogatory in the US than the UK?

What accounts for the strong disapproval of anyone using the word 'cunt' in the US, when the sentiment doesn't exist to the same extent in the UK?

To be clear, it's still a strong word to use in the UK, but it's much, much more common to hear it there than it is here in the US.

Is it merely due to a discrepancy in popular morals, or are there specific historical occurrences at play in the US that have left their mark? Does the strong feminist movement in the US in the 60/70ies factor in e.g.?

Does anyone know how 'acceptable' the term is in other countries with a large English speaking population (India e.g.)?

I'm new here, and I ask this genuinely, as I've lived in both England and the States and have been fascinated by the visceral reaction the word tends to evoke by large numbers Americans. Per previous discussions on meta there's a consensus for not shying away from offensive words and a faction that doesn't even recommend censoring them when used in the context of discussing the English language.

I chose to only censor it in the title, so nobody can claim to be offended if they click through, and this question will still turn up in search results for the uncensored version.

Am I right in saying that in the US the primary usage of the word is for a man to call a woman a cunt as an accusation of reprehensible moral standards, as well as it being laced with undertones of misogyny and sexism? In this context, extreme offensiveness is very much the intent.

In the UK it’s not really used that way; rather it’s just another generic insult that, while still regarded as the strongest of our swear words, is losing its impact over time. As well as occasionally being thrown at each other by antagonists in an argument, it’s quite widely used between friends (men, predominantly) – either towards each other in a playful sense, or to refer to other people of whom the speaker disapproves.

So I’d suggest that different reception of the word in the two countries is down to these different predominant uses.

As an American who has lived in the UK I can confirm the huge difference in perception of this word in the two c(o)untries.

It seems to me that the phenomenon is self-perpetuating: rude words have their power exhausted by overuse, so "cunt" carries a lot of power in the US because nobody uses it. Thus an effect becomes a cause and the cultural differences deepen over the years.

But that's a proximate answer, it doesn't get at the real "why."

Personally, I think it's just about linguistically identical to "cock," and I don't find it horribly offensive. I call people I don't like "cocks" all the time.

That's a very good question. It certainly is offensive here in the US, and I'm not sure why it's considered so much worse than other "Anglo-Saxon" words.

I've used all of the other ones on occasion. But in 52 years, I've used "cunt" anatomically only a handful of times, and I can't recall ever using it as a slang reference for a woman.

After Sen. John McCain called his wife Cindy a cunt in front of a bunch of reporters in 1992, they and their editors were paralyzed. The word is so offensive here, they couldn't figure out how to even talk about it indirectly, so the incident didn't become public until years later. In an American context, calling Cindy a cunt in front of strangers was so disrespectful and humiliating that I thought it was only slightly less shocking than if he'd punched her in the face, and I wondered why she didn't divorce him. I immediately decided not to vote for him in the 2008 Presidential election because, in someone of his position, it showed a frightening lack of self-control that's not compatible with controlling nuclear weapons.