Often on these boards, and elsewhere in life, I’ve heard people refer to certain women as skanks. Oftentimes, I couldn’t disagree more wholeheartedly. I remember hearing that about Calista Flockhart and Gwyneth Paltrow, for instance. It makes me think that in some people’s minds, skanky is synonymous with skinny. Merriam-Webster defines it as “a person and especially a woman of low or sleazy character.” Since I know little of the personal lives of those actresses, I can’t really comment on their personalities, though they seem nice enough.
When I think of a skank, I think of someone who looks like a drunken French whore with missing teeth, whiskey voice, misapplied makeup, and probably something communicable.
Unkempt hair, torn stockings, untucked shirt (but only on one side) dirty bra strap and safety pin showing, runny mascara, and if you’re really on an all-time low, a broken stiletto heel. And the remaining heel is terribly worn. And you’re probably pretty drunk.
A skank to me is a woman who isn’t too particular about who she sleeps with. She’d also be vaguely trashy/dirty/riddled with STDs. So, a slut but ickier. I wouldn’t use it to refer to Calista Flockhart or Gwyneth Paltrow, although Paltrow looks vaguely like one in her historic appearance.
See, while I think skank includes trashy appearance and sexual promiscuity, I think a combo of low-class choices and pride in those choices is what really sells it. A slut sleeps with a lot of people who may or may not be attractive and doesn’t apologize for it. A skank sleeps with a lot of people you wouldn’t touch with somebody else’s 10 foot pole and she *revels *in it. A drunk may drink too many beers and throw up in the alleyway. A skank is the one climbing on top of a bar stool at 3 AM after too many Red Bull and vodkas shouting, “Woo-hoo! Look at me, I’m really drunk!”
Sarah Silverman is a slut. Paris Hilton is a skank.
Courtney Love is, at varying parts of her career, a slut OR a skank.
My personal opinion is that “skank” has replaced the less-acceptable “white trash” or “ghetto” as a pejorative in a lot of cases… it’s got the tackiness and dirtiness mixed up with the sluttiness and probable drug/alcohol use. Oh, and constant cigarette dangling.
Britney Spears is the definition of skank in my book.
My impression is that skank is a really vicious thing to call a woman. It means not only that she dresses like a street-corner hooker, screws more men than you do, and does more drink and drug than you do, but you’d walk five blocks to spit on her. Yes, that mean. :eek: That’s why I don’t call anybody that.
I have noticed that women are more liberal in their use of skank, partly due to its association with Paris Hilton. So women who dress and act in a manner far too provocative for the environment (school, office, dinner party) are refered to as skanks.
This has led to a couple of nice inventions at work. One of the guys who seems to befriend all the women who act as if they are promiscuous is now refered to as a skank magnet. For a while we had a young temp who was often chastised for her revealing clothing and coquettish manner. All the men at work couldn’t resist ogling her and were said to be enskanked.
In Fergie’s defense, she’s just admitted to an incontinence problem. Google it, if you must, I heard it on the radio. That doesn’t make her a skank so much as it does make her unfortunate.
In my group of friends, aged between 17 and 22, a skank is someone with low moral standards as well as sexual ones. She’ll steal your boyfriend (that said, if he’s easy to steal, she can keep him) without a second thought and allow several males to do something to her all at once and brag about it. Sex is a weapon and STD’s are the ammo.
Edit: Clothing is optional. When worn, it tends to display unsavoury body parts. These girls often have nice parts and like all females, not nice parts, which vary between individuals. Somehow, they always manage to show off bum crack, muffin tops and squished back fat. It comes from too-tight clothing that’s poorly cut and designed to ‘show off one’s body’.
Skank is less about promiscuity than the combination of poor hygiene, frequent operation at reduced capacity (whether through drugs, alcohol or simple stupidity) and a constant desire for attention. Promiscuity is just a common result of the latter two. A woman is not skanky just because she’s had sex with many different partners, and it’s perfectly possible to be skanky and still be a virgin.
While I’m not a big fan of nipples, it was the overall look that I was referring to. I know she was going for some sort of goth thing, but it just turned out unfortunate.
See, and I wouldn’t call Paris Hilton a skank. She dresses high-fashion and is discriminating about who she sleeps with (Greek shipping heirs and other mill/billionaires only).
Um, when did slut become something decent to be? Did I nod off for a decade or something? “Slut” is a perjorative everywhere I’ve ever been. I’ve seen long-term friendships break up over the use of the word. Where I’m from, it’s just another word for whore.
When I think of “skank,” I think of a young woman who could be attractive if she’d quit smoking, quit pissing in the alley behind the bar when the ladies’ room is full, and start wearing a bra. She looks like she could use a bath and some new clothes, but doesn’t smell too bad most of the time. She makes it clear that she is sexually available pretty much all of the time.
