But had I ever cut to the chase and coughed up cold, hard cash for sex instead of the things that cash can buy, I'd have tripped over a magical, legal line in the sand and run afoul of the law in most U.S. jurisdictions. Really, they don't seem too terribly crazy about sex within the institution, either. In particular, though, they see commercial sex as a threat to the institution of marriage, which is supposed to be the backbone of society as they conceive society, of course. Prostitutes are somehow inherently objectified and abused by selling sexual favors. Actually, the unforgivable act here may be the fact that most prostitutes have sex with men the defenders of womynhood just haven't yet figured out how to criminalize the non-commercial variety of intercourse.
T here are, of course, abuses in prostitution.
Prohibitionist drumbeaters of the left are fond of citing statistics about women being pressed into service as sexual slaves around the world, brutalized, and exploited. But, if anything, both of these arguments are stronger cases for legalization than against. An above-ground hooker is a worker or entrepreneur in yet one more legal trade. Beating or abusing an above-ground hooker is much the same as kidnapping a man and forcing him to be a bank clerk or walking into a bar and punching a waitress the perpetrator can expect serious legal consequences. But, when the trade is illegal, it's going to attract the same sort of bruisers who dominate all sectors of the underworld, and a hooker who's skirting the law isn't likely to risk her freedom to call the cops on an abusive john or brutal pimp.