It is a cliche in detective fiction, used to suggest that a mystery can be resolved by identifying a femme fatale or female love interest.
'The phrase embodies a cliché of detective pulp fiction: no matter what the problem, a woman is often the root cause.
In his 1963 detective novel The Chill, Ross Macdonald's sleuth Lew Archer offers a wry analysis of the concept, stating: "When a woman is murdered, you ask her estranged husband where he was at the time.
A character (a mud turtle) in the comic strip Pogo is named "Churchill 'Churchy' LaFemme".
In what may be considered the most notable use of the phrase, a Big Band-inspired Disco collective known as Dr. Buzzard's Original Savannah Band recorded a song called "Cherchez La Femme", which was their biggest hit, peaking at #1 on the Billboard Disco chart in 1976, the year it was released.