In watching these music videos and doing the readings, the most interesting aspect to me was the conversation about the yellow dress that Beyoncé wore in Lemonade. This conversation begins by describing how the director of the Lemonade music video Jonas Akerlund insisted on having Beyoncé wear a yellow dress to “balance the destructive action of the video with an undeniably feminine color” (Ford 193). In watching the music video, however, many black women saw the yellow dress as a symbol of Oshun, a Yoruba deity who is represented by the color yellow and is known for being strong, but also vulnerable enough to love. To many black women, Beyoncé wearing this yellow dressed symbolized the power, but also the ability tone vulnerable, of Oshun, a figure that is rooted in African “diaspora spiritual and cultural vernacular” (Ford 194). In this scenario, the yellow dress for Akerland intended to symbolize femininity among the destruction, and while some of the audience likely saw it this way, another subset of the audience, primarily black woman, tooth yellow dress to symbolize Oshun, an important cultural figure, and a symbol of power and vulnerability. I think this scenario is interesting because it highlights how the same thing, like the yellow dress, in the same circumstances can be interpreted in vastly different ways due to individuals’ own beliefs, background, or knowledge. For Akerland, he most likely embraced the symbol of femininity from the metal flower from Rist’s doing, while the black woman interpreted the yellow dress as a symbol of Oshun due to their cultural and spiritual background. An individual’s personal experiences, background, culture, and understanding of the world can lead to different, varying interpretations of the same symbol or situation.

            In reading these differences of interpretation, I thought largely of my experiences in high school and a bit in college, wherein reading a novel or watching a film, treachery often pointed out symbols; however, in interpreting these symbols, there was often a “right answer” tone found. For example, if there was water falling on an individual in a scene, it was the “right answer” to interpret this as a symbol of rebirth and renewal. After doing this reading, however, I question whether this way of thinking about interpreting symbols, that there’s a “right answer”, is the right way to think about interpretation. By boiling a symbol don to a single, “correct” meaning, this way of thinking ignores the individual background and experiences of the individuals, in this case, students reading a novel or watching a film, and instead assumes that ever an individual has the same background and that every symbol has the same meaning to everyone. Thus, I thinker this reading, it is important to take away the idea that when interpreting symbols, it is important to recognize that individuals’ background and experiences can lead to different interpretations of the same symbol.