Competition vs. Cooperation (Masculine vs. Feminine)

I found the conversation in class this past Wednesday to be very interesting.  To set the scene, we began the conversation around the topic of collaboration verses competition. this topic was initiated by the Howard Rheingold video that we all so diligently watched.  Rheingold postulates in this video that some forms of sharing can be economically benefiting to one's own self interest.  All of this; the video and our conversations about it were very intriguing, but I observed what seemed to be a much more interesting development within the classes conversational dynamics.  Within our class discussion, it seemed to me that the majority of those whose argument supported competition were more inclined towards masculinity and those whose argument favored cooperation expressed more feminine qualities.

Now let me back up a bit here to give perspective to my observation.  I am not suggesting that the  men favored competition and the women favored cooperation or that my observation is dependent upon sexual orientation.  I am suggesting that from my own perspective and judgment, the students who display masculinity predominantly within their personality seemed to favor competition and the students who display femininity predominantly were more inclined towards cooperation.  Of course I am not presenting this observation with any evidential validity.  I am only making assumptions based upon my own interpretations.  Personally, I was given the physical attributes of a man but I often exhibit many feminine characteristics within my personality. As suggested in the article  Femininity/Masculinity written by Jan E. Stets and Peter J. Burke from the Department of Sociology at Washington State University;

Femininity and masculinity or one's gender identity (Burke, Stets and Pirog-Good 1988; Spence 1985) refers to the degree to which persons see themselves as masculine or feminine given what it means to be a man or woman in society. Femininity and masculinity are rooted in the social (one's gender) rather than the biological (one's sex). Societal members decide what being male or female means (e.g., dominant or passive, brave or emotional), and males will generally respond by defining themselves as masculine while females will generally define themselves as feminine. Because these are social definitions, however, it is possible for one to be female and see herself as masculine or male and see himself as feminine.

 Essentially gender and sexual orientation are not at the core of this discussion.  What I am suggesting is held within personality characteristics.

Within the class debate no student proposed that competition verses cooperation was essentially a one sided argument.  This particular class is filled with intellects that tower my own but even I intuitively  understand the duality of this competition verses cooperation argument.  Of course the appropriate conclusions to this discussion involve a blending of both competitive and cooperative forces to maximise group benefit.  What I am commenting on were the dynamics of the group discussion and the polarities of the arguments dependent or perhaps more accurate influenced by personality characteristics.

I have recently within the last few weeks been recovering from illness and am still medicating my symptoms.  An unfortunate side affect of my medications are cloudy-headedness.  if I were not under such medicated influences, I would have liked to have proposed my observations within our class debate.  I find this matter interesting and wonder what response my observation would receive.   it is quite possible that my observation about our class discussion  is filled with logical fallacies.  I do have a tendency towards equivocation.  Of course this class was not designed to focus on philosophy or psychology, but I feel it is prudent to evaluate all realms of possibility within each situation.