Er, well my sense of it is that "cunt" is more a reference to the woman to whom it is attached, than to the sexual organ itself, and is more than a tad harsher than "bitch". C.f. I get along just fine with my prick and my asshole, but to be called either one is another thing. It is low, but then so are very many Obama supporters.

Well, I'm from the camp that maintains "cunt" (in its non-organ sense, the eroticism thereof [or lack] being an interesting discussion all on its own), is probably more of an "insult" than "bitch."

But I just have trouble seeing it as significantly worse than "prick" or "asshole."

They're all body parts, right? I mean, I understand that equating me with my genitalia (or Palin with hers) is hostile, and often a sign of misogyny. I'm just not sure what it has to do with me, unless I plan on getting overwrought over being "anatomically correct."

If we really want to see what people are made of, we should start calling them "pancreases," and go from there.

Like, once in a while, I feel like my brother is acting like . . . like a total liver. But I don't know if I'm being objective about it. Perhaps he's just being a bit of a sebaceous gland. Not sure on that one.

I don't know. I equate prick with "arrogant and insensitive", and asshole with "deliberately insensitive and/or grossly arrogant", but cunt with "slutty, arrogant, insensitive bitch". Despite their all being body parts and having similar meanings, only cunt really seems to have a negative sexual connotation still attached to it.

Or maybe it's just me. Maybe others assign different weight to the word.

I know for sure that if the shoe were on the other foot and people were expressing a level of racist language commensurate with the level of sexist language we're seeing, well the uproar would be enough to power a small city for a week.

Well, we do equate people with body parts pretty much all the time, it's just that we don't often think anything of it. The major issue is, when call someone a body part name, you're dismissing the rest of that person, and concentrating on a single aspect. Which is not too bad, if it's a complimentary aspect...

"Geez, you libs are all heart, ain'tcha?"

"Hot damn! but that Dilton is a brainiac!"

"Surely I hooked up with someone

"Would'cha lookkit that Greg! He's naught but a walking stomach!"