Why do you actually want to write as a woman?

Lately I'm seeing more and more reasons why women should stop writing. I'm not sure if this is the right place to post this, I don't see an opposite thread, but the weekly discussion thread is a little too big to fit this comment. I've left it here. Forgive me if this is actually not allowed. <br><br>***TL;DR: Why do you want to write?***<br><br>This is not actually about gender, and it actually is about writing.&#x200B;<br><br>I've seen a lot of comments, both as a writer and as a reader, that "writing helps me heal". Writing helps me process through things as well, and I'm sure it can be incredibly freeing to finally get some closure. <br><br>After 12 years of writing, I've learned that writing is definitely not healing. Sure, actually healing can be incredibly difficult and actually processing through trauma can be incredibly difficult and incredibly painful. But just through some natural meandering, I've discovered that healing and writing don't always go hand in hand.<br><br>The big difference? Sometimes writing through healing can be incredibly liberating and freeing. But through some natural meandering, writing isn't always healing.<br><br>This is an important distinction. <br><br>Let's take a raw example: I wrote 4 pages on how much I hated my mom, and then I finally triggered myself to go talk to her. This isn't perfect, but it was healing. But I've also written about how much people suck and I just want to sit in a meadow. This is a healing balm. <br><br>But I can write for hours about how I hate my mom and I hate her because she kicked me out and actually I'm the victim here. I can spend hours writing about how it actually was her fault this whole time. That's not healing. <br><br>If you write because you want to heal, then great. But it's also important to actually know how to heal through writing, and it's also important to actually want to heal. If you write only for comfort and you stay in that comfort zone with little to no growth, then that's definitely not healing.<br><br>&#x200B;<br><br>I've also seen a lot of opinions that are directly against opinions I hold, but that's okay.<br><br>But the biggest opinion I have that is against everyone else is: I don't like who I am. I've been working on changing who I am for 12 years now, and I still definitely have a lot to go. In my writing, that's not okay. I've been told to strive for authenticity and individuality, but that's not me. I've learned that actually being who I am, as is, is not who I want to be as.<br><br>But the biggest opinion I have that is against everyone else is: writing is definitely not for me. In order to be a writer, I don't actually want to write. I just don't like writing. I don't like reading. I don't understand the need to actually produce stories as a writer. It's actually not fun for me. I've been through some natural meandering with this for 12 years, and through that meandering, I've learned to actually love the process. I don't actually want to write, but I love the process.<br><br>But the biggest opinion I have that is against everyone else is: writing is definitely not for me. In order to be a writer, I don't actually want to write. I don't actually want to write because I need to. It actually does not come naturally as a form of comfort. I've been through some natural meandering with this for 12 years, and through that meandering, I've learned to actually love the process. I don't actually want to write. I don't actually want to write because I need to. It actually does not come naturally as a form of comfort. It's actually not fun for me. I don't actually want to write, but I love the process.<br><br>I've learned that the love can be developed. But that's not writing, that's just the process.<br><br>&#x200B;<br><br>&#x200B;