Why is porn legal in the US?

You can't solicit or accept payment for sex. You can film people having sex and sell it for profit. End of story, thread closed.

Jam it back in, in the dark.

OIC

Prostitution laws were by and large in place at a time when a bunch of old hag religious nuts implanted the idea that prostitution was a system of white slavery, where white women (most important here) were forced against their will to serve Johns in seedy brothels across the country.

It was all bullshit, but that didn't stop the laws from passing. Now prostitution is still illegal based on similar claims, where women aren't consenting to the act of prostitution, or the dangers involved in pimping and violent Johns. These claims are made without considering that the dangerous nature of prostitution is a result of its illegality, and that in cases where prostitution is legal (see: Nevada) it's a safe industry.

It is as if legally, one cannot consent to offer oneself sexually for money.

Edit: The reason pornography is legal contrasted to prostitution is because, quite simply, it was never ubiquitous throughout history to the point where those kind of "white slavery" stigmas could be put in place.

How ya doing, buddy?

None of which ever stopped The Institution. The Catholic Church ran brothels, and nunneries were practically a pussy buffet for priests until The Reformation started demanding that everybody be more moral.

None of that carried over formally into the US, despite the Puritans and all of that other self-righteous bullshit. Prostitution was a taboo for all the reasons you described, but nobody cared enough to illegalize and crack down until they started believing in the lie of White Slavery.

This thing is sticky, and I don't like it. I don't appreciate it.