Skank: Makes me think of someone who never bathes. Or maybe has some of the hygiene problems I read about in my work.
You might be thinking of skunk.
No, I agree, it has hygiene/appearance connotations.
I don't know what skank means. It's an ugly word. Uglier than ho', probably, but maybe the PG-13 rules don't allow references to whores, or require them to be called prostitutes or something.
I would have gone with slut, which in my day was the favored term in high school circles. It seems the least cringe-inducing.
I once saw a
Friends episode in which Rachel, Jennifer Aniston's character, gets a visit from her sister, played by Christina Applegate. There's some kind of subterfuge going on that I can't remember -- somehow it involves the sister wanting to borrow an outfit of Rachel's that maybe isn't really hers or something. Anyway, the sister complains it looks slutty.
"Well, that's because I'm a slut," Rachel says calmly.
After that, I liked the word. Jennifer Aniston reappropriated it!