I think you got it, but going a bit further, Yes cunt is a female who does not have any other value then her ability to accept a cock at the whim of a male, while pussy still refers to a person of either gender, with some characteristic that is viewed as feminine and also viewed as negative.
For the Americans and Canadians in this thread (just about everyone, so far, i think):
Did you realize that, in both of its non-feline meanings, pussy is hardly ever used outside of North America? In places like Australia and New Zealand and the UK, “pussy” is hardly ever used to refer to a vagina, or to refer to someone who is being lame or weak.*
I’ve always found pussy, when referring to the vagina, to be a vaguely pathetic and infantilizing word. I can’t even explain why i think this. Perhaps it is simply to do with the fact that it wasn’t used in the culture i grew up in. Of course, “cunt” is far too strong for many people, although i have no problem with it. If you don’t want to use the formal term, “vagina”, i guess you’re left with alternatives like “snatch” or perhaps “box” (is the latter even used in North America?).
- It’s possible that this has changed in the years since i lived in those places.
Can’t
Understand
Normal
Thinking
Little Sister thinks it is a bad word
If a Brit calls someone a pussy, it’s usually a term of denigration, a less severe form of ‘wimp’, an attack on their male-ness. If a Brit calls someone a cunt, it can have a variety of meanings, from admiration to abuse. We Brits like to be creative and confusing.
Diceman mentioned this, and I agree that it’s an Anglo-Saxon v. Romantic issue. Generalizing: Romantic words are soft and pleasant. Anglo-Saxon words are harsh and abrupt. Fantastic words for the job. 
My father-in-law is Irish and he calls his cat “pussy”. The cat doesn’t even have a name - he only has the cat because it decided to live in his garage. It’s just “pussy”. My wife (also Irish so she doesn’t have an excuse) and I have to stifle laughter every time he calls the cat. “Where’s my pussy?” “Who wants to eat, pussy?” “Look at the hairy pussy.” (Okay, he’s never said the last one but the others are direct quotes.)
It’s the one word I can’t ever, under any circumstances, say in front of my mother. But it also seems there’s a movement among some feminist/activist types to “reclaim” the word. In fact, my college newspaper published an article about that, using the word frequently, not too long ago. This was only a couple years after I bitched out one of my reporters when I was an editor there for using the word aloud in the newsroom.
It might be the new n-word… only the people it applies to are allowed to say it.
Though, not to go into TMI territory, but I’ve found it can be a fun word to toss around during a rather charged, um, sexual encounter.
“Cunt” also means “dupicitous woman” (“You lying cunt!”), whereas “pussy” also means a man lacking in traits valued in men (“He won’t fight, the pussy”). In the States, it’s pretty unusual to call a man a cunt, or a woman a pussy.
Twat, possibly. Certainly not as offensive as cunt.
Si
A former girlfriend would talk dirty sometimes when we were screwing and she liked to say “cunt” a lot. It didn’t do much for me. In fact, it was distracting because I would think “What kind of girl says that?” I asked her about it and she said she was only saying it because she thought it would turn me on, and since it didn’t she would stop. She switched to “pussy” and a good time was had by all.
Of course! How could i forget?
Twat is, in my experience, the quintessential British epithet.
Especially when pronounced to rhyme with “hat” rather than with “hot” (i lived in the North when i was in England, everyone i knew pronounced it like this).
I’m female. I’m not the least bit offended by the word “cunt.” I think it’s a great word. And for some reason it make me think of canteloupe (it has three letters in common, so I think that’s it).
I use “cunt” and “bitch” interchangably, which is to say - I generally don’t use them a lot unless I’m joking. Occasionally a woman will almost rear-end me or something equally frightening and I’ll scream it, but it doesn’t happen often (I did just call a chick on a motorcycle that the other day for darting in front of me), and is usually traffic-induced. When I’m insulting someone, I stick to the basics: “Fucker,” “idiot,” “moron,” “dipshit,” and my favorite: “cum-guzzling gutterslut.”
And incidentally, has anyone here MET a woman who was a real, true cunt in the purest sense of the word - meaning, no good for anything except receiving penis and sperm? Because I have. And every time someone calls me a cunt and I think they’re comparing me to that woman, I giggle. I wish I was that brainless sometimes. I bet life would be a lot more exciting.
~Tasha
I guess that while growing up and learning the language, a person is “taught” that some words, even though they are naming the same thing, have a slightly different nuance than others.
So, in the case of cunt v. pussy, while in a context where either may be used as a name for the vagina, cunt gives more of a harsh, hard core, or possibly even vulgar, ambiance to the discussion, while pussy is a little more “light hearted”. Pussy is received by me to be more in line with one of the “cutsie” words people use for sexual or intimate things.
People, when they are paying attention, try to pick the words they use with the intention of conveying more than just a two dimensional literal meaning. Some posters here are polite, and can get there points across, while others choose words that annoy others, but they may be trying to make the same points.
Body language can also be used to change the tone and meaning of a phrase. (Like with sarcasm.)
For example I can call my penis a “weenie”, “johnson”, “Tallywacker”, or “Mr. Happy”, and they should seem to evoke a more light hearted frame of mind in the listener than “cock”, or “shlong” does.
I dunno how the word was first created and categorised as harsh, but it seems it was.
Cunt, pussy, twat, vagina all just terms for female genetalia. If you want to get rude you’d call it a badly packed kebab.
Cunt is jost stronger, in the same way that cock is stronger than penis.
You might piss with a penis, or shave a pussy. But you would fuck with a cock and a cunt. (other variations considered for the LGB&TG crowd)
Plosive. Fricatives are sounds made by friction, like /f/, /s/, and /sh/.
(I’m not a linguist. I just play one on SDMB.)
I think it’s okay to call a guy either cunt or pussy . In my experience however ,
call a girl the “C” word is going to end badly . Really badly .
By the way , excellent question
It’s an odd thing. “Bitch” I consider almost a compliment. Some women I feel close to? We call each other “bitch” or “whore” or “slut” in friendly ways. Like men might say “you bastard” “you muthafucka” or whatever.
It’s an in-group/out-group thing.
I’ve also unfortunately misused the word ‘bitch’ with other women that don’t feel that way. And hoo boy, did I have to do a LOT of apologizing.
Cunt was for ages a word that I just didn’t like.
Then my mother (another person that didn’t like the word) went to see Eve Ensler’s “The Vagina Monologues”.
WATCH your fifty year old mother act bits out!
LISTEN to her say the word ‘cunt’ fifteen hundred times over a four week period.
REALIZE it really is just a word about a body part.
(And then try to repress the memory of your mother saying ‘cunt’ fifteen hundred times.)
Though there are connotations? It is just a word. A powerful word, certainly.
But just a word.
Words are tools.
I was actually quite surprised about the British usage of this word – in the US it’s an insult pretty much reserved for women. Only in the UK can men be cunts too…
It’s also used in modified forms as well.
“What a cunty day I’ve fucking had! The entire cunting network went down and guess who Geoff insisted fix it? Cuntybollocks here, that’s who. The cunt.”
Take Our Word discusses the origins of all the girly gang of slang.