I Hate My Job: Thots on Labor, Sex Work, and Capitalism. An Interview with Adrie Rose.
A big thank you to Adrie Rose for agreeing to speak with me about the upcoming Kickstarter funded anthology, I Hate My Job: Thots on Labor, Sex Work, and Capitalism.
Adrie has brought together a diverse group of current and former sex workers including =
Hate My Job is set to be published by Working Girls Press (WGP), a cooperative publisher founded in 2023 by Molly B. Simmons and Emily Marie Passos Duffy. With a mission to publish, promote, and support the writing and art of sex workers, WGP approaches publishing through collaborative and collectivist principles.
Previous titles published by Working Girls Press are available here.
The estimated book launch date for I Hate My Job: Thots on Labor, Sex Work, and Capitalism, is November 2025.
What inspired you to create this anthology? Was there a specific moment or experience that sparked the idea?
A lot of things, I think. This is, first and foremost, the culmination of years in, around, and on the periphery of the industry. I've had a lot of feelings, both positive and negative, about my time, my clients, and my interactions with non-sex workers based on their perception of me, and those feelings have evolved a lot during the last decade or so. It's probably more honest to say there wasn't a single moment or experience that was the catalyst -- just experiences in general.
The through-line for me, especially after I began reading Carol Leigh's work more, has always been that this is just a job. Some people really love their jobs, and some people, like me, are ambivalent at best. It's never felt fair, to me, that sex workers are never given permission to be ambivalent, or even negative, about their work without someone from the outside bearing down on them with demands that they justify their participation in the industry through empowerment or something inane. No other job, no other industry demands this -- not military service, not policing, not health insurance. It's only us. This book was born, if you will, out of a desire to give sex workers a safe place to say all the things we're not supposed to say.
With countries like New Zealand and Belgium leading the way, do you predict that more countries will decriminalise sex work?
I really wish that I could say yes. I think more countries will dabble with the Nordic Model, or iterations of it. But I really do believe we're in for a global wave of repression that hasn't been seen in several generations. I think there are a lot of very angry men, especially white men, who are looking to exact retribution on women, queer people, and people of colour and I think sex work(ers), as always, will be on the front lines of that cultural and legal fight.
At the risk of being accused of giving in to doomerism, I wouldn't say that it's entirely hopeless. I do believe that there are a lot of people, even in powerful positions, who want to create a better world. And I believe they're doing everything possible to make that hope a reality. But, that's an incredibly difficult fight in a world where populism is such an attractive ideology. I think we're just doing a very small, but necessary, part to make the fight a little easier.
I recently read Chokepoint Capitalism and also Technofeudalism and I'm finding the subject of big tech's role in modern capitalism fascinating. What do you see as the implications of big tech in terms of our ability to use online platforms for profit as sex worker's?
I mentioned this in a Q&A with our publisher, Working Girls Press, but I didn't include the impact of technology as a specific theme in the book because I didn't think I would be able to edit that writing in an appropriate way. I spent a lot of years in school fully immersed in how technology companies and financial institutions have an undue impact on sex workers and it's very difficult for me to approach that topic from a non-academic standpoint. I'll do my best with this question though.
I think tech is irrevocably intertwined with the future of sex work. With the loss of Twitter as a viable platform for advertising, we're seeing losses in earning potential that I, personally, haven't seen since Back page was taken offline. As more social media platforms become increasingly hostile to anything "other," I think the consequences will only grow. After the passage of SESTA/FOSTA, platforms like AirBnB started quietly targeting people suspected of "non-desirable" behaviour through the use of proprietary algorithms that scrape a user's device history. Technology and sex work cannot be separated from each other, and it's in every sex worker's best interest to learn as much as they can about how platforms operate, down to the line items of their Terms of Service and arbitration policies.
What was the biggest challenge in putting this anthology together? Any moments where you thought, “I hate this (anthology compiler and editor) job” while working on it?
We're still in the process of writing at the time of this interview, so I imagine the best/worst is yet to come. I have to imagine that the hardest part will be deciding what to cut. We have an incredible group of contributors and I do worry about the boundary between thoughtful edits, and changing their voice(s). I've been at the mercy of editors who were more interested in word counts or changing my writing to better fit their plan, so I would hate to make another person feel that way. Overall, I'm just so incredibly excited about putting this anthology together, and grateful to our contributors for their faith in me and WGP.
What do you hope readers take away from this collection? Is it more about catharsis, public education, social change, or something else?
A little bit of everything, I think? This is certainly cathartic, for me at least. I've spent a lot of time arguing with strangers on the internet, and less time trying to ignore them. This anthology is everything I've ever wanted to say, some of what I've already said, and things I haven't considered saying yet. There's certainly an element of education here, but that wasn't my primary goal. This book is meant to be a conversation between sex workers, for sex workers. We absolutely want everyone to grab a copy, but with the understanding that this is not a book for someone who is still trying to rationalise support or understanding for sex workers. This is not a 101-level course, so to speak. It's probably more akin to a 401- or 501-level. Along with education comes change, ideally, so that's definitely baked in. And of course, this book is meant to function as a safe place for everyone that's ever felt they didn't belong to the community, because they can't say they love what they do.
I already pledged for the E Book duo but if someone else wants to pre-order I Hate My Job, can they do so via the Kickstarter or is there some other way to pre-order or get notified when it's published?
One of the reasons I love WGP is that the Kickstarter is the pre-order process, which feels a little more equitable, because backers can get the book for a little less than the retail cost. Now that the Kickstarter is closed, there is a waiting list where people can sign up to get an email when the book officially launches.-