In the UK "cunt" is still a pretty serious swear word, it's probably still near the very top and is used when no other insult seems quite enough, and it's more likely to get bleeped on TV than fuck, but it seems to be less so than in the US and it doesn't seem to carry the same misogynistic connotations that it does in the US.
That being said, in my experience it's a word people seem to tend to avoid using towards women, even though when used towards a man it doesn't carry any implications of questioning the man's masculinity like it does in the US (unlike if you were to call a man a "bitch"), it's basically just a much more extreme way of calling someone an "arsehole" or any other vulgar insult really. Maybe it's the ever increasing influence of American culture through entertainment and the internet? Or maybe it's just that a lot of men for whatever reason inherently don't like using more extreme and vulgar terms to women's faces unless they lose their shit?
