14 DAY TRIAL // If you’re in the business of reality television, you’d better come up with new ideas every day to keep things interesting on the show because, otherwise, people will stop tuning in. For Kim Kardashian, that also includes exploiting a little orphan girl from Thailand – or her case, at least, if not her directly.
The Kardashians were in Thailand earlier this year, on vacation. They also shot episodes for the current season of the E!-produced Keeping Up with the Kardashians there, with the most recent documenting a trip to a local orphanage where Kim “literally fell in love” with a girl.
Because she liked her so much, she thought she might just pick her up and take her home, like she’d buy one of her favorite expensive purses.
“She is so sweet, I like literally want to take her home with me,” she told her mom Kris Jenner, whilst enjoying themselves at the beach. Video of their chat is included below.
Kim even called up Kanye to inform him that “honey, I would like literally adopt her,” and see what he had to say about it. Meanwhile, viewers at home learned that Kim uses “like literally” quite randomly.
Kris talked some sense into her: “You can’t just go to an orphanage and fall in love with a child and then think that you can take them home like you're shopping. You get so passionate about things.” She advised her to channel all this love she felt towards the girl into making her life at the orphanage easier.
“I’m really impressed with how happy these kids are with you know, so little of what they have. I grew up with such a strong family bond and connection, it makes me so sad that these kids don’t have that family element,” Kim said in the same episode, as she and her sisters delivered bags of presents to the kids.
She found out that the Thai government didn’t allow foreigners to take children out of the country so, with the adoption no longer a possibility, she at least donated stuff to the kids. In the end, the kids were still better off with the Kardashian visit than without, because they received toys and clothes, but one can’t but wonder: is there no limit to exploitative television?
Was this failed-adoption semi-plot really essential to the new season that it couldn’t have been left out? Does a charitable action cease to exist if it’s not advertised?