Perhaps this is part of the way that language heals over time. It's much better to associate this term with Futurama and ML than bigotry. And the name makes contextual sense as well.

Not British so genuinely asking - to what degree? Greater than "thing that bends"?

Because there's plenty of slang that doesn't inhibit use of the word by its earlier definition. Nobody blinks when you ask for a "box". Teenagers might giggle at Dick's stores, but it hasn't hurt business.

I'm not really "down with the kids", but I would think most people in their twenties and thirties and older would definitely understand "bender" to mean a homosexual, and "on a bender" to mean "out getting drunk" (though this isn't a derogatory term in any particular sense). I don't think I've ever used the word "bender" to mean "thing that bends", but perhaps that's just because of the other meaning of the term here.

I don't think "box" is understood at all in the UK to mean what it does in US slang, though we do use the word in the context of cricket to mean something quite specific!

I'm not sure what we'd call a thing that bends (I suppose it would depend on what is being bent and how), but bender is pretty much exclusively used to mean a gay person or a very drunken night.

I agree that it doesn't inhibit its use as a product name though. Git seems to be doing just fine.

> Not British so genuinely asking - to what degree? Greater than "thing that bends"?

I'm Irish, not British, but the slangs are similar. "Bender" (on it's own) would mean a gay man. "on a bender" would mean a drunken thing. I'm not sure if people ever need a word for "thing that bends", since that rarely comes up. People might say "bendy bus" for an articulated bus.

As evidence, I give you Ofcom, the British state body which regulates things on TV & Radio. If you say offensive things on TV/Radio, they'll fine you. They did research in 2016 about offensive words[1][2] and have listed them and have advice. For "bender" they say class it as "Strong language, generally unacceptable. Seen as old-fashioned, but derogatory to gay men." [2]p10, and class it alongside: "dyke", "tranny", "homo", "lesbo", "muff diver", "he-she", "tranny", "carpet muncher" or "bum boy".

That should give you an idea of whether it's acceptable to use it now.

"Box" is not on that list, I don't know what that means. "Dick" is listed as "Strong language, generally unacceptable pre-watershed. Seen as vulgar and distasteful by many. Less problematic when used in a humorous context, and generally considered slightly milder than ‘cock’.", which is a similar classification to "bender", or "raghead", "negro", "kike", "slut", "cocksucker", etc

[1] https://www.ofcom.org.uk/__data/assets/pdf_file/0022/91624/O...

[2] https://www.ofcom.org.uk/__data/assets/pdf_file/0023/91625/O...

Not British, but Irish, where it's got the same meaning (It would be seen as the inverse of "straight", but always derogatory)

> to what degree?

Less and less.

a) homophobic slurs have become generally less acceptable

b) US cultural influence makes people more aware of multiple meanings

c) Futurama is also a thing that people here are aware exists / fans of

My favourite instance of this was the reaction of UK cinema audiences to dialogue in "The Last Airbender":

"I could tell from looking at you that you were a bender". Genius.

Any given word has a chance for slang in the UK for penis, vagina, homosexuality, or being drunk.

"bender" actually ticks two of those boxes (homosexuality and being drunk - "on a bender"), which is quite good going for one little word, really!

Not really, there are plenty of words which don't have quite as strong a connection as "bender"

Well, the British slang for cigarette is "fag", which is derogatory in the US, so call it even?

Are there any software products from British organisations called "Fag"?

It's not a desperately common term though in the UK any more.

... when you say faggot - are you talking about the delicious spiced meatballs, or the piece of fire-wood?

maybe i'm turning into my parents but i think we stopped calling them spiced meatballs in the 90s

That and 'going on a bender', that being going out and drinking (or otherwise becoming intoxicated) excessively over a long period of time.

Well, box in slang means vagina. Should Dropbox (or any other company that has box in its name) reconsider its name too?

Consider the conditional probabilities (with made up values suggesting the relative orders of magnitude):

    P(box=vagina|box uttered) = 0.0001
    vs
    P(bender=slur|bender uttered) = 0.8

I tried to put it more delicately!