Collective Effervescence

It is in our human nature to be nurtured, to connect with other living beings especially people.  Cathy Malchiodi explains in Please Don't Take My Collective Effervescence Away, a 2021 Psychology Today article how at a basic, physiological level humans experience entrainment and at a psychological level they experience synchrony which can lead to collective effervescence, a powerful shared experience with intense emotion. 

Rime and Paez's 2023 Why We Gather: A New Look, Empirically Documented, at Émile Durkheim’s Theory of Collective Assemblies and Collective Effervescence is a meta analysis of research of "conditions of reduced self-other differentiation. Abundant data support that each successive moment of collective assemblies contributes to blurring this differentiation. Ample support also exists that because shared emotions are increasingly amplified in collective context, they can fuel high-intensity experiences. Moreover, recent studies of self-transcendent emotions can account for the self-transformative effects described by Durkheim at the climax of collective assemblies. In conclusion, this century-old model is remarkably supported by recent results, mostly collected in experimental settings."

Dacher Keltner, a professor of psychology at the University of California, Berkeley, and the faculty director of UC Berkeley’s Greater Good Science Center has studied the power of shared human emotion, especially compassion and awe, and how humans express emotion, and how emotions guide moral identities and search for meaning. Keltner's research interests also span issues of power, status, inequality, and social class. He is the author of The Power Paradox and the bestselling book Born to Be Good, and the coeditor of The Compassionate Instinct. His most recent book, Awe, is a national bestseller. Keltner explains collective effervescence here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pOKedWZU_wY

The Beauty of Collective Effervescence, a lesson from Keltner and the Greater Good Science Center.

Exploring the Sources of Collective Effervescence; A Multilevel Study by Lasse Liebst from University of Copenhagen:

Creating the sacred from the profane: Collective effervescence and everyday activities (2019) by Shira Gabriel, et. al. available from APA Psychnet

Abstract:

The current research examines the hypothesis that collective effervescence—the sense of connection and meaning that comes from collective events—is not just useful for understanding rare, unusual, and intense collective events, but also as a framework for understanding how seemingly insignificant and/or common collective gatherings (i.e. ‘everyday events’) may give meaning, a sense of connection, and joy to life. We found evidence for our hypothesis across nine different studies utilizing eleven datasets and over 2500 participants. The first three studies found that collective effervescence is best understood as a combination of feeling connected to others and a sensation of sacredness. The next four studies found that collective effervescence is found in common, everyday kinds of events and that it is related to various aspects of enjoying group activities. The last two studies found that collective effervescent experiences are common; three quarters of people experience collective effervescence at least once a week and a third experience them every day. Moreover, commonly experiencing collective effervescence predicts wellbeing above and beyond the effects of other kinds of social connection. Results are discussed in terms of the human need for social connection and the importance of groups.

From Protests, Parties, and Sports Games All Fill the Same Human Need (2017), an article in the CUT explains the benefits of a shared collective experience such as a concert and the research that supports the idea that these shared experiences are healthy for us.

The Covid-19 pandemic made it abundantly clear how much we need these shared experiences as Adam Grant explained in this 2021 op-ed for the NYT,

Most people view emotions as existing primarily or even exclusively in their heads. Happiness is considered a state of mind; melancholy is a potential warning sign of mental illness. But the reality is that emotions are inherently social: They’re woven through our interactions.  Research has found that people laugh five times as often when they’re with others as when they’re alone. Even exchanging pleasantries with a stranger on a train is enough to spark joy....Peak happiness lies mostly in collective activity.We find our greatest bliss in moments of collective effervescence. It’s a concept coined in the early 20th century by the pioneering sociologist Émile Durkheim to describe the sense of energy and harmony people feel when they come together in a group around a shared purpose. Collective effervescence is the synchrony you feel when you slide into rhythm with strangers on a dance floor, colleagues in a brainstorming session, cousins at a religious service or teammates on a soccer field.

 

This 2022 meta analysis from Frontiers in Psychology analyzes the connection between individual emotions and larger collective behaviors.

https://hii-mag.com/article/collective-effervescence

Collins 2004 Interactive Ritual Theory

Advice for New Teachers

I recently had a former student contact me because she is becoming a high school sociology teacher.  As a new teacher, I shared the following advice:

Be real  not ideal - First and foremost,  know this is a journey.  Do not expect yourself to be perfect.  And, know that your situation will change - there will be advantages and difficulties because you are a student teacher and because you are young that will change as you become a regular teacher and older.   I think good teachers will recognized these for what they are and therefore embrace the advantages and adjust for the challenges as you develop.

Connect - The most important thing that you can do is connect with your students.  If they see you as caring about them and genuinely interested in them as individuals, they will learn better from you and invest in your teaching.  Learn their names. Take an interest in who they are.  Show you care. Offer them opportunity to give you feedback.  Greet students when they walk in. 

Make your class authentic - the best teachers I know are not just masters of their subject, but they created an authentic class.  If you remember my class, I used the bell and "fired up, ready to go?"  Some people might call it a schtick or see it as theatrical, but students will be more excited and interested when they know that they are coming to your own unique place. This might take time to figure out what works for you, but I think it is important and should not be neglected for simply teaching based on pedagogy in books.

Don't take yourself or class too seriously or personally - Despite your best efforts, Students may not ty or appear to not care - 99% of the time, this is because of something going on in their own life.  You can try to reach them, but ultimately, don't beat yourself up about it. And often times, I have thought that things were not going well, but I persevered and devoted myself to it.  When the end of the year came, I expected very negative feedback from students, but I have almost always had more positive feedback than negative.  So, sometimes you need to keep devoting yourself and doing what you believe in even if at the time it feels like students don't care.  You will be surprised at how many of them are moved by your teaching even though they don't show it at the time. A great teacher I worked with used to say that as teachers, "we are planting shade trees that we will never sit under."

Final Reflection/Final Exam

For the final exam/assessment, this course will require you to write an essay reflecting on the course, what you learned and how it applies to your life.  It is due at the end of the scheduled exam time that is set by LUC.

SOCL 101

Salituro

Final Reflection

 

This is the final assessment for our SOCL 101 class. You can turn it in anytime BEFORE the exam period for our class closes.  You do NOT need to be in class for the actual scheduled final.

This paper will ask you to reflect on our class and apply your understanding of sociology to your own life.  This assignment is due by the end of the scheduled final exam period for your class.  This is a firm deadline without exception.  Be sure to write in proper prose with correct grammar and spelling. Be sure to answer each part of the reflection that I outline below. Make your writing authentic – use details and make it specific to your own life so that the essay is unique and can only be applied to your life.  Look back over our lessons on the blog to help give you ideas.  I highly recommend writing your paper in a separate app like Word or Google Docs and then pasting it into the Google Form.

 

Part 1:

In the syllabus, I wrote,

Learning sociology can give students new insights about everyday life.  C. Wright Mills, an important sociologist, said that sociology will make the familiar, strange; sociology may make you feel uncomfortable and challenge your assumptions about the world.  Peter Berger, another notable sociologist, warned that "People who like to avoid shocking discoveries...should stay away from sociology."  Sociology can be an amazing class that changes your perspective about the world and more importantly about yourself.  These insights will hopefully increase student mindfulness about themselves as individuals, their interactions with others and their society in general.

 

Now looking back at the class, what is something that we learned that made you think about your life differently or something that challenged your assumptions about the world?  What is some of the evidence we examined that contributed to your new way of thinking?  Use specific examples of how you thought before the class and how you think now – even if it is not a huge difference, explain the nuance in how you might think differently and provide an explanation of the sociological theory/research that helped you to do so.

 

Part 2

This course is a Tier 1 foundational social science class that intends to help students “demonstrate cultural, societal and self understanding.”  As written in the syllabus, 

These courses examine how humans are shaped by their societies.  Students who successfully complete this class will demonstrate an understanding of the relationships among cultural, and social forces, and their impact on human behavior.

 

With this in mind, think about what we learned about how people are shaped by social forces – especially nature and nurture, culture, family, school, peers, and social media.  Explain how you have been shaped by one or more of these social forces.  Explain authentic details and specifics that only apply to you in your explanation of the topic.  What research/readings from class adds to your understanding of how you are shaped by whichever topic you choose? Explain how the research/readings applies to your example specifically.

 

Part 3  

This course has a diversity learning outcome that seek to:

·      Recognize that human diversity is complex and variegated.

·      Distinguish the various factors that inform and impact individual identity formation.

·      Comprehend how group identities are formed in a heterogeneous society.

 

With this in mind, choose an outgroup identity such as gender (male or female), race (Black, Asian, or Hispanic) or social class (middle class or low-income) that you do NOT identify with.  Explain how the course informed you about about this identity and what you want to take away from the course to increase your understanding of this outgroup.  How is this identity more complex and varied than you (or the average American) might realize?  What challenges do people of this identity face? Connect your answer to at least one reading or evidence that I assigned/cited in class.  How does this reading/evidence inform your understanding of the group?

 

Part 4

Please write a review of the course content.  What do you want to remember from the course?  What was most interesting?  What would you like to learn more about?  Do you think SOCL101 is interesting/useful? If so, why specifically? If not, why not – what could be specifically different?

Grading

This Essay will be grade out of 40 points.

Parts 1-3 will be graded out of 10 points based on your ability to clearly and correctly answer the whole question and provide authentic/specific examples in your answer.

Part 4 will be out 5 points for a meaningful and thoughtful response.

Finally, there will be 5 points for all technical aspects including:  grammar, spelling, turning it on time.

3.07 Inequality and Gender

Announcement:  Next class (Tuesday 11/26) will be ASYNCHRONOUS so you do not have to be present in class on that day. 

Action items:

Mahler and Kimmel's article here.

CJ Pascoe's Dude You're a F** (For background info click here).

      

Google Form Here

1.  Before you begin, please answer this question in as many ways as you can (brainstorm): 

Besides being different physically, how would your life be different if you were born a different sex?

Today's Lesson: 

What is gender and why is it confusing? What does it mean that gender is a social construction?What is a binary and how does it contribute to the confusion?What evidence is there that gender is a social construction?What does the construction of gender look like for Americans?How do the agents of socialization construct gender?

Besides social class and race, another area of inequality that sociologists frequently examine is gender.  Similar to race, our society often uses the term gender erroneously.  Because of that, society makes assumptions about gender and biology that are more a social construct than biology.

Operationalizing terms:  What is gender and why is it confusing? 

Oftentimes, gender is confused and misunderstood because we are limited by our language.  We use the terms "male" and "female" to refer to both sex and gender.  Then, to add to the confusion, oftentimes sexuality is genderized.  Many people use the term "gay" or other pejoratives to mean that someone or something is not masculine.  So all three of these terms are confused with each other.  But, sex, sexuality, and gender are different terms that technically refer to different aspects of who we are as individuals. 

Professionals like doctors, psychologists, sociologists, social workers, and others who study people have written and researched about the differences of these terms extensively.  Sex is the biology that someone is born with.  Most often, a person's sex is assigned based on their reproductive parts.  People are also born with an aptitude for a sexuality.  As they get older, the sexuality becomes sexual attraction such as heterosexual or homosexual attraction.  These are part of our biological makeup, our nature. Most researchers have concluded that these can't be changed.  "Gender" however, is not biological.  It is a social construction that we learn from an early age and we often take it for granted.  Gender is how we think we should act based on our sex and sexuality.  In sum:

• Sex is the biology individuals are born with and often assigned at birth.
• Sexuality is the biological aptitude an individual is born with for attraction.
• Gender is how an individual reacts to these two.  This is not biological but instead a social construct.  
• Gender can be an inner identity/feeling or an outward expression

2.  Do you understand the difference between the terms "sex", "sexuality" and "gender" and why these differences create confusion?



What does it mean that gender is a social construction?

While sex and sexuality are determined (at least in part by biology), gender is a social construction.   Think about how you answered that question at the top of this post.  Most of the ways your life would have been different are examples of society treating people differently based on their sex (and sexuality).  This constructs a certain way of being.  So, for example, if I am a heterosexual male, how should I act?  What colors should I like?  What clothes should I wear?  How should I talk?   What sports should I play?  Is it okay for me to cry?  To be rough?  To like violence?   To be sensitive?  And so on... These are all our gender and they are all learned reactions.

Gender reveal parties are one example of how our language uses male/female to refer to both sex and gender - do these parties really reveal a child's gender?  Will the child be masculine/feminine?  How do we know?  

"Nature has no edges.  It is not binary."

What is a binary and how does it contribute to the confusion?

Humans tend to be dualistic in their understanding of the world (and thus, their language).  So much of our understanding is oversimplified into dualism: light and dark, wet and dry, tall and short, etc...  But the reality is that there is so much in between these concepts.  The same is true in terms of "gender".  Our culture pushes people to the edges of the continuum below.  This creates a duality for sex, sexual orientation, gender identity and gender expression.  This duality is often referred to as a "gender" binary.

Evidence for the continuum

• Sex - Scientific American explains the continuum here.  And they provide a useful graphic here or here.
• Sex - One example of the spectrum of sex is the IAAF's 2018 proposal of new rules that would exclude some female runners from competing in women's Olympic events.  Guardian article here.
• Gender - The Gender Spectrum website also provides resources and an explanation.
• Gender Identity - Here is a terrific program about gender from National Geographic called The Gender Revolution.  It has an in-depth explanation of transgender as well as some of the latest science about sex and gender.
• Here is a Guardian article about shattering the myth of the gendered brain.
• For more info, this is a great blog from Dr. Zevallos, an Australian sociologist from a Latin-Australian background.
• The-Be-you-tiful-intiative started by a former student of mine.
• It's pronounced metrosexual, a free online resource for learning & teaching about gender, sexuality, & social justice created by Sam Killermann. 
• From the BBC, this article details the changes in pitch for women's voices and the dynamic effects of nature and nurture on each other.

3. Is gender a binary or a continuum?  What does that mean?

Evidence that gender is a social construction - change over place and time

Because gender is a social construct, it can be examined with a sociological imagination to show that it is different depending on where or when you examine it.  

Where

Some cultures have acknowledged a non-binary gender for centuries such as India's Hijra, Japan's Wakashu, Mexico's Muxe and two-spirit people from American Indians.

PBS highlights gender-diverse cultures here:

When

"The Manly Origins of Cheerleading" from Soc Images shows how cheerleading has changed from being considered very masculine to feminine to something in between:

And from the Smithonian, checkout this article about children's clothing becoming genderized:

First dresses then pink and blue

“It’s really a story of what happened to neutral clothing,” says Paoletti, who has explored the meaning of children’s clothing for 30 years. For centuries, she says, children wore dainty white dresses up to age 6. “What was once a matter of practicality—you dress your baby in white dresses and diapers; white cotton can be bleached—became a matter of ‘Oh my God, if I dress my baby in the wrong thing, they’ll grow up perverted,’ ” Paoletti says.The march toward gender-specific clothes was neither linear nor rapid. Pink and blue arrived, along with other pastels, as colors for babies in the mid-19th century, yet the two colors were not promoted as gender signifiers until just before World War I—and even then, it took time for popular culture to sort things out. For example, a June 1918 article from the trade publication Earnshaw’s Infants’ Department said, “The generally accepted rule is pink for the boys, and blue for the girls. The reason is that pink, being a more decided and stronger color, is more suitable for the boy, while blue, which is more delicate and dainty, is prettier for the girl.”

For a more detailed explanation of the genderization of colors, see this 9 minute video from PBS

A third example of the changing social construct is heels for men, explained here in Teen Vogue:

4.  How has our notion of gender changed over time?  Use your sociological imagination to explain how one of the examples above is evidence for gender being a social construction.


For more information:

Scene On Radio did an excellent 10-part series podcast is about gender from the 
Center for Documentary Studies at Duke University distributed by PRX. The series attempts to answer:  What’s up with this male-dominated world? How did we get sexism, patriarchy, misogyny in the first place? How can we get better at seeing it, and what can we do about it? Co-hosts John Biewen and Celeste Headlee explore those questions and more.  This is an excellent podcast about the social construction of gender:

This 2018 episode of Hidden Brain explains how the differences between men and women are created by society.  

What does society construct for gender?

Take a moment to think about if you have heard the various phrases and where you might have heard them:

Man up!

Boys will be boys.

You play like a girl.

Someday you'll meet Prince Charming/Mr. Right.

You need to cook and clean so that you can be a good wife.

That's not lady-like.

5.  Which of the messages have you heard before?
Mark all the messages that you have heard - even if the message was not directed at you.

6.  What agents of socialization have you heard say those phrases from the link above? 
List all the categories of people where you have heard these.  Were they:  parents, siblings, friends, peers, teachers, coaches, actors/actresses, tik-tok stars, somewhere else?

7.  List the messages that the phrases convey for males.  For example, for "Boys will be boys," you might write, "There's only one way to be a boy," You can't change boys," or,  "It's ok for boys to be rough."

8.  List the messages that the phrases convey for females.



This activity should reveal that even though people actually exist on a continuum (lesson 1), our culture constantly promotes a binary.  We hear these binary messages from all of the agents of socialization.  The messages start even before you are born.  So the idea of a binary is very strong and we are pushed to the ends of the binary from the moment we are born.


The boxes of the binary

Before going further, let me clarify about the biology of males and females.  On average, categorically, men and women are indeed different.  On average, males are taller, have more muscle mass and more testosterone and less estrogen than females.   However, none of these are at the exclusivity of each other.  Males and females both have testosterone and estrogen, they both have muscle mass.  Females can be tall and have a lot of muscle mass.  Males can be short and have little muscle mass.  People are complex and we all exist along a continuum.  

However, our society emphasizes the polar ends of the continuum.  Males are pushed to be only masculine and females are pushed to be feminine.  Society gives the appearance that there is only one way to be masculine or feminine.  Below are some of the traditional traits that dominant US culture has pushed for each gender.  Note that these are traditional in the sense that society has generally promoted them, even if they do not apply to you.  To be clear, I am not saying that men and women should be these ways, I am saying that society has traditionally socialized men and women to be these ways:

9.  Which of the traditional gender traits (above) are similar to the messages that you identified that are associated with he phrases above?  

PEW Research Center found similar gendered language in a 2017 study about gender expectations for men and women.  Click through the follow up analysis (2018), and look for ways that gender is constructed.

How Americans describe what society values (and doesn’t) in each gender? What traits does society value most in men and in women? What traits does society say men and women should not have?

You can click on the link above to explore their findings.  Here is a sample of their findings.  Gold is for women and green is for men.

Examples of data/evidence for the binary.
Please look at each of the links below.  Look for how the marketplace creates the binary between male and female  - especially in ways that are unnecessary.  When you are finished looking at each, answer question six.

• Gendered Products; See this post about products that are pointlessly gendered thus reifying the idea of traditional gender traits.  
• Gendered Halloween costumes.

10.  After reviewing the two links above (aren't those funny?), what product was the most pointlessly gendered?  What costume was the most ridiculously gendered?

Finally, one last bit of evidence that society pushes us to the binary is in the gendered language of teacher reviews.  This example shows how socialization shapes how American college students perceive their professors.  Sociology professor Ben Schmidt has gathered the metadata from ratemyprofessor.com at his site, Gendered Language in Teacher Reviews. The interactive chart lets you explore the words used to describe male and female teachers in about 14 million reviews from RateMyProfessor.com. You can enter any word (or two-word phrase) into the box below to see how it is split across gender and discipline: the x-axis gives how many times your term is used per million words of text (normalized against gender and field). You can also limit to just negative or positive reviews (based on the numeric ratings on the site). For some more background, see here. Not all words have gender splits, but a surprising number do.  Even things like pronouns are used quite differently by gender.   For example, the word "funny" shows up in the chart below.  Notice that orange is female and blue is male.  For every single subject (in the column on the left) funny is mentioned more in reviews of male teachers.  Every single subject!  

After you have tried your own search for words, or if the website was not working, click here to see my analysis of the RateMyProfessor data.


11.  See how many words you can find that are completely gendered.  Make a list.
Go to professor Schmidt's website, Gendered Language in Teacher Reviews.  See how many words you can find that are genderized.  What are the words?  List them in number 7.

How does society construct the gender binary?

The construction of gender and agents of socialization

All of the agents of socialization help to construct gender.  Look for the claim and evidence supporting each of these agents.  How does each agent contribute to the socialization of gender?  What evidence does sociology provide that agents of socialization influence individuals' self-concepts about gender?

Family:

This article from Newsweek explains the research by neuroscientist Lise Eliot that shows parents begin treating infants differently from the moment they are born.   Parents talk differently to babies based on sex.  Experiments reveal this is true for strangers as well.  It can even be argued that parents treat babies differently before they are born!  For example, pink and blue, decorating the nursery, "gender" reveal parties, and choosing a name.

This research published in Developmental Psychology by Fausto-Sterling, et. al. shows, "measurable sex-related differences in how mothers handle and touch their infants from age 3 months to age 12 months."

Treating six month-olds differently:

• boys are given independence and encouraged to be active
• girls are coddled and ecouraged to be dependent and passive
• by thirteen months, each gender acts differently.

Also differences in toys; boys=action figures, weapons; girls=jewelry, dolls.  

Click here to see a post from the Society Pages that examines how the  Barbie above helps to reinforce lessons learned from teachers.  The toy does not just show up in a little girl's toy box.  Toys come from family which is trying to do right by the kid based on messages in the media. 

Peers

Girls and boys learn what it means to be a man or woman from friends.
See the book from Patricia and Peter Adler on preadolescent peer pressure.

This research by Patricia and Peter Adler published in Sociology of Education shows that values for popularity develop as early as fourth grade;

• boys: athletics, coolness and toughness, grades=lower popularity (think about how this shows up in the ratemyprofessor reviews from the other lesson).
• girls: family background, physical appearance (esp. clothing and makeup) and ability to attract popular boys, grades=higher popularity.          

School

From the Society Pages, this post shows the latent lessons (hidden curriculum) that schools teach.  In this case, it starts as young as 8 years old.   (See the image below)

From the National Academy of Sciences this study shows that teacher anxiety about math affects their students. 

This research in the journal of Sociology of Education shows how high school begins to shape students' interest in majoring in STEM fields in college.

This research from Gender and Society shows that high school teachers' attitudes about females and math affect how teachers grade and teach female students.

This article from the NY Times shows that gender gap in math scores disappears in countries with a more gender-equal culture.

The Society Pages explain how cross-cultural studies provide evidence that the gendered expectations in STEM are a result of a social construction 

This 2007 study in Sociological Perspectives explains the  connection between core sports and homophobia finding that boys who participate in core sports (football, basketball, baseball, soccer) are nearly 3 times more likely to express homophobic attitudes.  Conversely, females who participated in nonathletic extracurricular activities were half as likely to express those attitudes as individuals who did not participate in those activities.

Work

Sociologist Jill Yavorsky found that the polarization in gendered traits also shows up in hiring practices, especially when overlapped with social class, published in the Journal of Social Forces here. 

12.  Which research about gender being constructed through the agents of socialization (family, peers, school) reinforcing gendered ideas is most interesting to you and why?

Non-binary Individuals

Besides cisgendered stereotypes, non-binary individuals face unique inequalities and obstacles.

According to an article from New England Journal of Medicine and available from the NIH, 

"As compared with the general public in other studies, gender-minority persons are more likely to live in poverty (29% vs. 12%), be unemployed (15% vs. 5%), be uninsured (14% vs. 11%), be the victim of intimate-partner violence (24% vs. 18%), have attempted suicide (40% vs. 4.6%), have experienced severe psychological stress in the past month (39% vs. 5%), and have HIV (1.4% vs. 0.3%). Thirty percent have been homeless at some time, and 9% report having been physically assaulted in the previous year because of their gender identity.  Gender-nonconforming persons are more likely than transgender persons to have experienced mistreatment in school (70% vs. 59%) or by the police (29% vs. 22%) and are less likely to be “out” in the workplace (33% vs. 44%) or with family (35% vs. 64%).

 

And the article points out that many non-binary people have received inadequate medical care or even have been refused medical care.  "These negative experiences may explain why in two studies, only 28% and 40% of gender-minority persons said that their health care provider was aware of their gender identity."

 

Inclusion and Nonbinary People

There are many ways of reinforcing the gender binary in everyday life and thus excluding non-binary individuals. Additionally, these binary practices reinforce the idea that males and females can only exist in exclusive poles rather than on a spectrum.  Some of the ways that these binary practices commonly show up are with pronouns, bathrooms and dress codes.  In all three cases, care should be taken to try to use neutral forms of each.  

·       Out and Equal provides resources and suggestions for each of these.

·       The NIH has a guide to inclusive language including saying "everyone" instead of "ladies and gentlemen" and another study from researchers at Princeton finds that using gender neutral terms at work creates less bias and more equality at the workplace.

·       Use the person's preferred pronoun and proper name as explained by Transequality.org.

 

For more info, the Human Rights Campaign Foundation has an FAQ available at their website.

 

Also, a guide to supporting the trans community is available from Transequality.org.

 

GenderSpectrum.org provides an extensive collection of resources including these: 

 

And the National LGBTQIA+ Health Education Center has a number of learning modules and resources including this Guide to Providing Care for Patients with Non-binary Gender Identities that highlights these best practices:

Concluding

To summarize, the agents of socialization play a pivotal role in helping each of develop a sense of self (remember the isolated kids, Genie and Danielle from the social structure unit?).  One of the ways that the groups influence us in thinking about gender.  And the influence is particularly strong because it happens from the time we are young (even before we are born) and then continues in a web of structure that perpetuates the construction of gender.  The web is a connection of parents, schools, peers, toys/marketers and media that all reinforce the gender binary.  

For More Info about Gender: