Cherchez la femme
Cherchez la femme is a French phrase which literally means 'look for the woman'. It is a cliché 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. Thus, it has come to refer to explanations that automatically find the same root cause, no matter the specifics of the problem.
Origin of the phrase
The expression comes from the novel The Mohicans of Paris '''' published 1854–1859 by Alexandre Dumas (père). The phrase is repeated several times in the novel; the first use reads:Cherchez la femme, pardieu! cherchez la femme!
Look for the woman, by God! Look for the woman!
Dumas also used the phrase in his 1864 theatrical adaptation:
Il y a une femme dans toutes les affaires; aussitôt qu'on me fait un rapport, je dis: « Cherchez la femme ! »
There is a woman in every case; as soon as someone brings me a report, I say, 'Look for the woman!'
In popular culture
- 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. It's the corollary of cherchez la femme."
- In the 1974 film Chinatown, Evelyn Mulwray, Faye Dunaway's character, attempts to suss out J. J. Gittes by murmuring "cherchez la femme" to him in bed, insinuating that a woman is why he left the LAPD.
- A character in the comic strip Pogo is named "Churchill 'Churchy' LaFemme".
- 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.
- In the 2010 action role-playing game Fallout: New Vegas, players can select the perk "Cherchez La Femme" for female protagonists, indicating a sapphic sexual orientation that expands same-sex dialogue options and gives a combat bonus against female NPCs.