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It is, as you say, a misogynist way to dismiss the many women who were important during Jesus' ministry and during the founding of the early gentile Churches. But the book sure doesn't make it easy to keep em straight.
- Mary Magdalene who had 7 devils cast out of her
- Mary of Bethany who anointed Christ with oil close to his crucifixion
- Unnamed woman who anointed Christ with oil and tears in the home of Simon
Not only are these three woman separate and distinct, none of them are even explicitly called out as prostitutes. So they both conflated their stories and assumed what the sin was.
Other Marys in the Gospels:
- Mary the mother of Christ
- Mary the mother of James
- Mary of Clopas
Mary mother of [John] Mark is in Acts, and Mary of Rome is in Romans.
It's generally assumed that "the other Mary" is one of the many above. It is widely, but not universally, assumed that the two "Mary and Martha" stories refer to the same people. Some traditions say that Salome was yet another Mary, but this seems poorly founded.
Perhaps 'Mary' was a stand-in name for "Woman nobody thought to write down the name of," like "Karen" is a stand-in name today.
Also, the final episode of Martin Scorsese's "The Saints" series dropped, featuring her.