While listening to music from 1980s I started thinking, How did the sensitive types adapt to a macho and competitive decade?
It appears that they adapted by getting good at macho and competitive stuff, and in this way preserving their sensitivity. We see this for example with Billy Idol. Here is someone who became very macho; however he also kept the sensitivity to produce some quite profound songs.
On the Internet, there was a man named Scott who called himself The Crow. He was clearly a sensitive type; but he became very good at fighting and also ended up succeeding in business. There was another man named Rodney who kept running me down something awful; however I ended up realizing that he was not such a bad person after all. He got good at athletics and business, while remaining quite a sensitive type and retaining his interest in such things as romance.
These people had to become macho and strong in order to keep their sensitivity, or else be seen as weaklings and trodden down. They had to get good at all the macho stuff in order to get away with being what they were.
So here were people who had to get strong in order to get away with what they were in a time that was very competitive. And that appears to be an appropriate adaptation to the time that they faced.