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Ann Mumford, "Leona Helmsley: The Construction of a Woman Tax Evader", Feminist Legal Studies V/2 (1997), 169-194: This paper addresses the legal and media construction of the infamous American tax evader, Leona Helmsley, from a perspective which argues for her consideration by feminist legal scholars. Helmsley presents the latest example of a feminine image which spurred the American tax collector to action, through the equation of consumption-plus-feminine equals "off with her head". "Feminine" refers to the discourse provided by, in the UK, scholars such as Kate Green, and, in the US, Handelman, such that traditional legal conceptualisations are politicised with the feminine voice. This paper advocates the inclusion of Helmsley in this politicisation process. This argument may be discomforting for feminist legal scholars, given the '1980s', consumerist symbolism Helmsley represents. Nonetheless, this uniquely unattractive aspect of the American "backlash" (Faludi) against feminism warrants consideration by British feminist legal scholars, if only to inform their reaction to the changing basis of their tax collection system. If a tax system for revenue only is a chimera (Kornhauser), the argument, particularly espoused in the confused reaction of US law reviews to Helmsley, that feminist legal scholars can afford to ignore her socio-legal treatment is equally capricious.

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