And the thing is? A lot of the time that is true. Barbie is a currently famous example of "what you meant" being so incongruent with "what we got from it" that it basically has buried the original intent.
The issue being, when you try to wield your reading as a weapon to either change the work or present your view as the only possible reading. Something most people who consume product heavily of any kind are guilty of.
A friend of mine once relayed an anecdote about a story he'd written involving a guy getting magically turned into a girl, anatomy and all.
Magically. That's the operative word. Not hormones or surgery or whatever. Magic.
And then a tranny in his chat group got all hissy, saying it made him "not valid."
Went on and on and on about death-of-the-author.
"It doesn't matter what you meant. Only what the readers think matters."
And the thing is? A lot of the time that is true. Barbie is a currently famous example of "what you meant" being so incongruent with "what we got from it" that it basically has buried the original intent.
The issue being, when you try to wield your reading as a weapon to either change the work or present your view as the only possible reading. Something most people who consume product heavily of any kind are guilty of.