My New Year's resolution? Among other things,to blog here more. Every day I think "that's worth looking at" and never get around to it.

So in honour of that, here's a round-up of some stories and issues which have caught my attention in the last week or so.

Earlier this week the New Statesman published a feature by my friend Sonia looking at the 'pinkification' of women's sportswear. Sonia's done some analysis of the gear marketed at women and found some staggering stats, such as the fact that 70 per cent of Nike kit on JD Sports' website is pink and the majority of Decathlon's running shoes have pink on them too.

Ironically, the day this came out I went rowing, wearing far more pink than I would normally - a pink top, a pink-and-black gilet, and a pink buff. (This was also more coordinated than I normally manage.) This is about 60% of all my pink kit - the other two items being a pink cycling top I got in a bargain bin somewhere, and a navy rowing one-piece with pink stripes on the side. Mostly, I avoid pink. It doesn't especially suit me, I've never been a girly girl, and I'm more likely to pick blue or green to add to my extensive wardrobe of navy and black kit sourced from the clubs I've spent most time at.

Most of the replies to the New Statesman tweet about the article, apparently from men, are in the vein of "because women buy it". Well, it seems to me we're trapped in a vicious cycle here. Company produces a ton of stuff in pink. Women looking for kit find an item they like in terms of fit, practicality and so forth, but it only comes in pink, so they buy it. Company says "aha, women like to buy pink stuff!" and make more of it. The choice is also often between pink (or perhaps purple) and black, and too much black is just dull.

On a more positive note, I guess it's good that now there is a substantial amount of women's sports clothing to be found on the high street, as well-fitting kit is important in many sports.

Sonia's article also linked to a story I'd missed, about the Football Association issuing 'guidelines' to encourage girls to play football. A group of keen schoolgirl footballers in County Durham wrote to the FA to complain about the suggestions.

Naturally there's slightly more to this story than it would appear from the angle taken by most mass-media on it. The actual document was issued by the FA with input from charities Women in Sport and StreetGames Us Girl!

Fundamentally I think it's supposed to be a well-meaning document and it's grounded in a laudable effort to get women playing football. But it's littered with sexist stereotypes and generalisations and the page on 'incentives' is a picture of pinkness. Why should girls need incentives to play football? Isn't the fun they get out of the sport enough?

Better promotion of women's football in the media would probably be a much better way to encourage girls to take up the sport than offering them a pink hairband if they come to training. Perhaps the FA would be better off looking at that angle ...

Yesterday I went to a newsagents' to look at women's fitness magazines with an eye to pitching myself to them for freelance work. I found them in the 'lifestyle' section. In the 'sports and hobbies' section were all the men's sports magazines (and Women's Running, which seems to have escaped the 'lifestyle' tag). If a magazine has the word 'fitness' in the title shouldn't it perhaps be in the sports section?

That said there's a lot of online magazines now aimed at women's sport, especially in fields such as cycling, and there shop placement does not matter at all. Perhaps this is an issue which it's not worth getting worked up about ...

In Olympics-related news, double Olympic decathlon champion Ashton Eaton has retired. He made the announcement jointly with double Olympic heptathlon silver medallist Brianne Theisen-Eaton. They're married.

Of course that prompted a whole host of headlines such as "Olympic champion Ashton Eaton and wife Brianne retire". According to a friend on Facebook the original BBC story did not even name Theisen-Eaton, just describing her as "wife". Quite a lot of stories left her out of the headline and focused on him. I hope they'd have focused on her instead had Theisen-Eaton been the double champion and Eaton the double silver medallist, but I can't quite bring myself to believe that.

Meanwhile in the UK five sporting greats were made knights or dames in the New Year's Honours List. Predictably Sir Andy Murray hogged the headlines, but Dame Jessica Ennis-Hill got a fair bit of coverage and Dame Katherine Grainger a fair amount, although not as much as the rower in me would like!

I spotted a few comments on social media asking why Laura Kenny wasn't made a dame, after becoming the most-decorated British female Olympic athlete ever. But her husband Jason wasn't made a knight either, and with six gold medals he equalled Sir Chris Hoy's record - with Hoy knighted before winning his fifth and sixth medals in London 2012. Mind you, you can't compare Grainger's five-Olympic long career with that of the cyclists', not really, as in rowing you can't feasibly do more than two events in any one Games, and that is extremely rare. Cycling, swimming and athletics are all fields in which winning multiple medals is at least possible if extremely difficult. I'm sure, on their retirements, the Kennys will be Sir and Dame Kenny, based on precedent.