Who's that new gal standing in the feminine hygiene aisle? She's not shopping or hocking tampons, pads, powders or sprays. Unlike her flowery, pastel-tinted neighbors, this lady is selling Trojan condoms — and one discreet sex toy.

Her name: Elexa.

While Elexa's male counterpart, Trojan Man, is rooted in manly Greek lore, you won't find Elexa mentioned in any mythology book. She's not from the Bronze Age. She's a product of the Brand Age.

"Elexa really is a brand name that makes Trojan relevant to women," explains Cassandra Johnson, Elexa's product manager, who's based in New York. "It's sensual. It's approachable. It's empowering. It's all those things women aspire to be or think they already are."

It's Lifetime TV for condoms. And it happens to be illegal in some states (though not Washington).

"Products have personalities and gender," says "Branded Nation" author and University of Florida professor James Twitchell. "It is sort of a testament to modern sexual mores we now expect, at least from a marketing point of view, that women will carry what men used to — wink, wink — have in their wallet."

Of course, women have always bought condoms, but the difference here is that there's a sex toy, designed for women's pleasure, included. And this brand is very overtly marketed to women.

So can a product inherently for a man — condoms are designed to fit penises, you know — be marketed toward women? Twitchell says feminizing a male product is easier than ... well, there's not even a word for doing the opposite.

Trojan is hoping Elexa's extracurricular goodies, such as an intimacy gel, packaged with rubbers and the line's placement in the feminine-products aisle, will lure female consumers to the brand.

Unless, that is, you live in Georgia, Kansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Texas, Virginia, Alabama or Colorado. That's because Elexa's most intimate product — the vibrating latex ring sex toy — is outlawed due to antierotic massager laws that Trojan didn't want to touch. Residents of the aforementioned states can't even order the ring online, although they can lawfully purchase all other Elexa products. (All these products are just starting to appear in the Seattle market. Trojan's Elexa condoms can be found on shelves at Safeway stores in the Puget Sound area. They run from $2.99 to $29.99 at Amazon.com. For more information: www.elexabytrojan.ca.

It's a big fuss over a small object. The ring, a latex loop about 2 inches in diameter, has the smushy consistency of a gummy bear or a silicone fishing lure. It's attached to a bullet-size plastic capsule that provides vibration, activated by pressing a tiny button. The stimulation lasts about 20 minutes before it sputters out. And users can't replace the battery.

"We owe it to our consumers to provide products that really address their needs," says Johnson. "We're always very conscious of the type of packaging and the type of products we bring to market. We do so much testing to make sure everything we've done is very responsible and very tasteful."

Hallie Liberman, who used to sell sex toys Tupperware-style as a Passion Parties hostess in Texas, calls the ring a "good, entry-level gateway sex toy." "What's great about these companies is they're mainstreaming it," says Liberman. "Instead of giving it some extreme vulgar name, they're making it more accessible."

In July, Lifestyles launched the 4Play product line, which includes a vibrating ring without all the fuss of Elexa. And Durex sells personal massagers with names like Charm and Little Gem on its Web site.

"The type of people who buy this product are not scummy, scary people," says Liberman. "These are the type of people who won't step into a triple-X store. That's just not an inviting environment. If they can pick up a vibrating ring with their milk, that's great."

Derrik J. Lang is an asap writer based in New York.

Seattle Times reporter Judy Chia Hui Hsu contributed to this report.