Coco & Butter

TW: racism, sexism

Since Beyoncé Knowles-Carter’s surprise album release last week, she’s been the focus of a lot of conversations in my life. Judging by my Facebook feed, she’s been the focus of many others’ conversations, too. One interesting word choice keeps coming up again and again: entertainer. In the search for a concise way of describing her, we’ve collectively fallen on that one. The appeal is quite understandable, as one site attempts to summarize what she does by listing her as “an American singer, songwriter, record producer, actress, dancer and fashion designer”. “Entertainer” is a much simpler way of acknowledging her various talents and loads of hard work without obviously forgetting anything.

And so that’s the word we’ve increasingly chosen to stand alone for what Beyoncé does. From CNBC to L.A. Reid, talking about Beyoncé primarily — if not exclusively — as an “entertainer” has become the norm. To…