On Thu, 1 Nov 2007, JBrown72073 at cs.com wrote:
> This seems to be more of a British usage, in my observation. The
> asshole, while it has other characteristics, is most famous for emitting
> shit. Pricks and dicks, while they have many more lovely qualities, are
> also used to rape both women and men. But 'cunt' as a metaphor for the
> rich and powerful is not really logical--on that basis I attribute its
> use here to misogyny. The cunt's crime is to be attached to an oppressed
> and therefore despised group.
I don't think this is quite right. I think rather the origins of the British usage are (a) class and (b) homophobia. The British working class long despised their upper class for being effeminate. It was their inversion of the values of gentility. Cunt is simply the most shocking synechdoche for feminity. But they're not calling them women -- they're calling them faggots. And as homophobic insults have grown less common, it's perceived as more purely a class denunciation than ever.
I think this is why this British term doesn't fly in an American context. It's the flipside of our having no class consciousness.
I suppose in some contexts you could further analyze male homophobia into the denunciation in men of traits associated with women, and thus ultimately as misogyny. But in this case, I think that would abstract out exactly what you're trying to explain, namely why this insult is so immediately and intimately associated with the oppressing group and the felt insufferability of their snooty manners.
Michael