Maverick asks: Is prostitution different in some way I am failing to understand?
I would say prostitution is different because usually there are no protection or buffer measures set up for prostitutes within the "exploitation" structure. Workers who have grievances against their boss or their company are backed up by committees, unions and what-not, so that anything that goes over the "accepted" levels of exploitation can be dealt with quickly and (hopefully) satisfactorily. In contrast, prostitutes are more often than not marginalised, discriminated, persecuted, in frequent danger of physical harm, and can only resolve "grievances" by going to the police (and in many places that would land them in jail). The fact that their trade is secretive and taboo prevents them from acquiring basic rights that other people who work for money expect.
I guess what I want to say is that selling sex for money is not itself any more exploitative than selling your work to the company you work for, but the conditions that these women (and men, too) do it in are exploitative.
