No more fat suits, please. Stick to ‘experiencing’ real human tragediesIs anybody else as annoyed as I am by skinny supermodels in fat suits?For anyone who’s been so far blissfully unaware, Tyra Banks recently donned a fat suit to overnight add 350 pounds to her appearance. "Entertainment Tonight" celebrity Vanessa Minnillo did the same thing "to get a reality check on the everyday prejudices facing America’s weight-challenged women."It started in 2003 with actress Gwyneth Paltrow playing a fat woman in the movie "Shallow Hal," in which a shallow man falls in love with a large woman for her "inner beauty."Most recently Banks, the supermodel and talk show host, wanted to experience obesity and publicly report on how she was treated.Not surprisingly, she wasn’t recognized on the street as Tyra Banks, and her oversized shape was met with averted eyes and she felt generally invisible."It was one of the most heartbreaking days of my life," she shared on her show.Well done, Sherlock.Any fat person could have told her that’s how it feels to be fat in a thin-obsessed world.So what was the point of the experience, exactly?Her intent may have been noble (perhaps to tell the world to be nicer to fat people), but the whole song and dance comes across as self-serving … "Thank God I’m thin and beautiful, and God help those poor fat people."Wearing a fat costume somehow implies that overweight people are somewhat freakish. Miss Banks has been thin and beautiful for the better part of her life, and one day in a fat suit will not allow her "to experience" how fat people live. She’s a Victoria’s Secret lingerie model who now has her own talk show (which she fancies to be the next "Oprah Winfrey Show").My advice to Banks is this: If she truly aspires to Oprah’s level of professionalism and benevolence, she should put away the fat suit and become a spokesperson for some real causes.If she wants to "experience" how the other half lives, she could try living with the homeless, for example, and then donate a portion of her millions to hunger relief causes.An even nobler approach would be to do it quietly — just for the sake of doing something good — not for the limelight or for boosted TV ratings.It’s unhealthy to be fat, and most fat people will tell you it’s no fun being fat.But most overweight people enjoy rewarding careers, loving families and many of life’s pleasures (outside of food). Realizing there’s more to life than appearances, they don’t dwell on their shapes or on how the rest of the world treats them.… and they don’t appreciate skinny people serving as experts on their lives after a day in a fat suit.